A Fox Tale
by danceDANCEdance
Summary: After getting caught in the crossfire of Hiei's power-boosting spell, Kurama gets a little nostalgic, a little mysterious and a little fox tail. Oh and there's a new rival between Hiei and Kurama.... SHOUNEN-AI (kuramaxhiei or kurama x....) UPDATED!
1. Chapter 1

A Fox Tale

by: Keph

_**Author's Note #1:** Warning! Shounen-ai! No likey, no looky!_

_**Author's Note #2: **This story is the fourth in the series; previous stories ('the waiting time', 'do tell' and 'delicate nameless') concerned how Kurama and Hiei joined up with Yuusuke due to a contract Koenma presented them in exchange for their criminal sentances. However, the way Kurama goes about convincing Hiei to join the team has unexpected consequences which end with Hiei addicted to Kurama's blood and dying. In order to save him, Kurama sacrifices Hiei's memory of him...however even that plan goes awry since Hiei still remembers Kurama's name. If only that were enough for the kitsune..._

_**Author's Note #3:** This story takes place at the same time Yusuke is rescueing Yukina and Hiei is out for the blood of the ones who kidnapped his sister._

_**Author's Note #4**: I've checked again just to make sure-I really don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Shame that._

_**Author's Note #5: **Sorry this took so long to come up: School has been hell. _

_**Author's Note #6: **Continued appology: I really haven't finished this, so I'll slowly post what I have and write the rest while I do that. If I finish it before I finish posting what I have I WILL post it all. Sorry, but it's either post a little at a time or none for an unsure amount of time._

_**Author's Note #7:** I'm so happy you guys really like what I wrote so far. I have fans! Yeah! You guys rock! A big thanks to:_

_icedragonkitana- :)_

_Soul of Rain- :)_

_What2callmyself - thanks :)_

_Zelia Theb- thank you very much! :)_

_Dragon's Emerald-I'm glad you liked the other ones! I usually don't (honestly! I swear!) like to post separately because that gives me a reason to not finish the story. I usually have a night or two of mad writing and post, but lately that isn't possible-it's still a good idea to post things separately and I think it really is a good idea, but hopefully after this one I can go back to singular globular posts. :)_

_shadow priestess-sorry! I'm crazy multi-chapter lady! I can't help it...something about flow...Unfortunately this one will be a monster with many chapters, too! I'm sorry.... o .... :)_

_ExtremelyEvilKitty- :)_

_Su da 'mazin bannana eater-this one just might have some fluff-I'll try to get some in there! :)_

_ko-krama-hope you like this one too-as for what Yusuke and Kuwabara were watching... ;) :)_

Kurama lay in bed.

He heard his mother coming up the hall and quickly closed his eyes. When she entered and touched his forehead, his cheek, he didn't move.

"I'm glad you're OK, Shuiichi." she said to him. "I had such a bad feeling..." she said.

She kissed his cheek, lingered in the doorway of his bedroom, then was gone.

As soon as the door shut, Kurama opened his eyes and sighed. He did feel bad that he was letting his mother believe he was so sick. He felt bad he had turned up in the middle of the night with no explanation, only a vague muttering of illness, tiredness and the need for bed. She had led him to his room without question, but he had felt her gaze. She had been worried about him.

He lay his hands over his eyes.

Kurama had never felt so tired.

He felt weighted to the bed, his legs were lead, his eyes were magnatized, laced with sleep. His mouth felt dry, his cheeks cool.

Perhaps he wasn't feining illness as much as he believed.

But, it didn't matter.

Kurama looked out the window. He had missed school today. He had slept most of the day and dreamed.

"Hiei..." Kurama whispered now.

The fire-demon was gone. Kurama reached out to him and tried to feel for his youki, but it was no use.

Had Kurama expected any less?

He smiled to himself.

He had.

Perhaps it was the fact that Hiei had somehow managed to fight off some of the effects of the flower. Perhaps that had given him a hope; one at first quiet, then consuming, then waning. He had more than half expected to return home and see a familiar silouette in the tree outside his window. He glanced outside now. Nothing.

Kurama should just be glad the demon recalled him at all.

He should be glad that he had been able to save him. It had been close. If Kurama was so tired it meant that a great majority of his spirit energy had been necessary.

A final kiss.

There was no question of whether or not he was glad. He was.

He frowned.

"I am glad." he said outloud.

Such hollow words.

_....to be continued_


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Kurama woke to find a note in his mother's handwriting set on his nightstand. He picked it up and glancing at the clock, groaned.

He had overslept.

He could imagine what they were saying at school. Shuiichi was never absent and he was never late. Perhaps "Shuiichi" just hadn't been himself lately. Kurama sighed at his own joke and opened the note.

_Shuiichi (it read),_

_I have already called your school and told them you are sick._

_Stay in bed. I have made a doctor's apointment for tomorrow. _

_I will be home early._

_Love,_

_ka-san_

Kurama, letter still in hand, lay back down in bed in relief.

Not everything was a total disaster.

At least....

He sighed and was asleep, just like that.

It wasn't until much later, when the morning had turned to the late afternoon that he woke. Someone was ringing the door-bell. There was a pause between the sound, a hesitant, but insistant pause. The sound came again.

Kurama rubbed his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. He had been dreaming again. It was one that was becoming a fast favorite. Hiei was in it.

The doorbell rang again and Kurama sat up in bed and waited.

A wave of nausea swept through his stomach, but that was all. It was better than he had expected. After such a transfer of spirtual power, (not to mention a sword through the chest), it was nice he could open his eyes, let alone stand and walk down the hall. Or perhaps, it wasn't so much a question of will as of necessity.

The doorbell had rung four times in the space it took Kurama to answer it.

Apparently the fifth ring was on its way, for as Kurama opened the door, the boy standing there had his hand hovering over the buzzer.

"Hello." Kurama said. The boy was wearing a uniform like the one Kurama possessed.

"Minamino." The boy said and lowered his hand. It would have seemed that after all that work to get Kurama to come to the door he would have been happier to see him, but the boy just stood there, face void of expression.

"Can I be of some help?" Kurama asked.

The boy slowly blinked. Kurama raised an eyebrow. "Yes." the boy said and reached for his backpack.

As he opened it and rummaged through, Kurama cocked his head. "You are from school, right? What is your name?"

"Tohru Higashii." the boy said as he pulled something out of his bag and presented it to Kurama. "Here."

Kurama started. The boy had grabbed his wrist and placed a blue book into his hand. Papers were peeking out of the sides. "What is this?" Kurama asked, reclaiming his arm.

"Homework." Tohru Higashii answered, turning. "And a script."

"A script?"

"Yes. While you were absent, the class was assigned a play and since you were absent the girls all gave you the lead. They couldn't agree which one of them should come and give you your homework. At the end, they told me I had to do it." From the look in Higashii's eyes, he wasn't too impressed by that. He paused and leaned forward. "You know. You do look pale, Minamino."

"I do?"

"Yeah." Higashii said with the same expression, the same tone of voice. He reminded Kurama suddenly of Hiei. "Ja." He said and walked away.

Kurama watched after him. "Ja." he said, so soft he knew there was no way he had been heard.

And that was just as well.

_....to be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

That night, Kurama sat in bed. His homework was neatly piled on his desk. He opened the script-book.

"Are you sure you are up to school, Shuiichi?" his mother had asked.

"I am sure, mother."

She, however, wasn't as positive. "You have been sick a lot lately, Shuiichi. I think you should take one more day off. We'll go see the doctor and if he says you are alright..."

So Kurama was going to see the doctor.

It wasn't that he didn't like human doctors, he just never had had a use for them. He had never been sick in his life. Even if he had been, he could have run circles around any doctor in the Human World with the concoctions he could brew from a few Spirit World plants. He was surprised his mother had such faith in them, considering...

He sighed.

It was night and Kurama glanced up at the window of his bedroom. He could see the silouette of the tree in the moonlight with spider-web foliage moving in the wind. It was cold now. It was almost winter. The moon was beautiful.

Kurama peered out the window and let himself expected Hiei to appear.

Perhaps it was just a routine Kurama had grown accustomed to.

Kurama forced his eyes away.

He would get used to it.

There was that, but what would he do the next time he saw Hiei? Would he look at the Jiganshi a little too long? He could explain that, he could come up with something to say. Would he say something a little too familiar? It was just a matter of distraction in such an event.

What was Kurama worried for?

He knew, more than anyone, how to conceal, how to disguise.

Kurama rubbed his eyes.

His eyes were red because he was tired, he reasoned.

His heart was aching...

He knew the why for that too, even if he never could say it out loud.

"Hiei..."

Kurama stopped resolutely and shaking his head, buried his nose back into the script-book.

It was strange, but even though he had been told he was the lead, there was no mention of his character for the first few pages. There was, however, enough to let him know this was a love story.

On page 8, there he was.

Kurama paused; read it again, then once more.

Someone had written a note in pencil under his first line, but that wasn't why he was laughing, throwing back his head. His laughter was full and ripe with exhaustian, that heady sound of being too close to an edge too long.

_Minamino _(the note said)

_Costumes will be made for the play, but until then, please bring in anything you think will_

_help you stay in character._

See? That really wasn't a funny note at all.

What Kurama was actually laughing at was his character's name.He said it out loud, between grinning lips. "_Youko_...? A youko? You would think I couldn't be suprised anymore..." He threw his head back and laughed until his voice cracked and even then, he shook with a silent variety of his strange humor.

It really wasn't that funny. You see, if Kurama hadn't been laughing, he might've been looking toward the window at that moment.

If he had done that, he would have seen Hiei gazing in with a look that would've put a stop to Kurama's laughter.

Hiei touched the glass of the closed window. Sometimes he didn't understand that Fox. Sometimes he didn't understand himself. Why did he come here? Yukina needed him, but even so...

For a moment, it seemed he knew, then, like light on water suddenly breaking, the thought was gone.

Hiei turned away and vanished and behind him, Kurama took a breath and glanced at the empty tree.

See? Not funny at all.

_...to be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

The next day Kurama went to the doctor.

He sat in the examining room and the doctor came in and sat down on a stool.

"How have you been feeling lately, Shuiichi?" he asked.

"Fine." Kurama said and smiled at the skeptical look the doctor cast him over his chart. Kurama hadn't slept well the night before. He looked tired and too pale.

"I see..." The doctor made a note. "Your mother says you have been sick a lot recently."

"No." Kurama said and smiled. "Not sick, just....not well." He had already thought up the answers to these questions and besides, any tests that the human would run on him would show that he was healthy enough to run several marathons back to back.

"Is there a reason why?"

"School." Kurama said. He made it sound like an obvious thing.

The doctor still seemed skeptical.

"School. Yes. Your school is very competitive, Shuiichi. And I hear you make excellent marks."

"I try to."

"I see." There was something to the doctor's voice. He didn't believe Kurama. "And...is there anything else?"

"No...nothing."

"I see."

Kurama kept the frown off his face. He decided he would never visit a doctor again.

"Well. Let's get started, shall we?"

"Alright."

The doctor began the battery of tests of the ears and eyes, nose and throat...then he pulled out his stethoscope. He set it against Kurama's chest. "Breathe." he said.

Kurama breathed.

"Hmmm." said the doctor.

"Again."

Kurama did that, too, but this time, when he breathed something popped in his chest and he doubled over, clutching at his shirt. "Shuiichi?" the doctor said, touching his shoulder. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Nothing." Kurama said.

The doctor regarded him with naked suspicion. "Take off your shirt, please."

Kurama didn't even pause. Early that morning, he had used a plant to conceal the wounds across his body. If he wasn't so tired he wouldn't have had to do that. He would have been one move ahead of the doctor the whole time and would never have let anything show. Kurama really needed a day off.

The shirt came off.

His belly was smooth, no scars from the various swords that had slashed and pierced and gutted him so often as of late. His chest as well.

There was no evidence.

The doctor continued his tests and at the end, as he walked Kurama and his mother to the door of his office said, "No phsycial problems. Amazingly healthy. The young are so lucky that way."

"Yes." said Kurama and thought that he wasn't really all that young at all.

"Shuiichi?" the doctor called as his mother left through the doorway.

"Yes?"

"Although I found nothing, I can't shake the thought that something is wrong. After all, we are more than physical beings, there is something beneath everything that if upset can shift our health and our lives out of balance...."

Kurama smiled. "Thank you doctor." he said and turned and walked out of the office.

Perhaps human doctors were more astute than Kurama gave them credit for.

He wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing.

_...to be continued_


	5. Chapter 5

Tohru Higashii returned that day.

This time the papers in his hand were in a state closely resembling a ball.

"Your homework." he said and handed said ball-resembling papers over to Kurama.

"Thank you." Kurama said, looking uncertainly at his homework. He was a fox, not a cat.

"The girls _fought _over who should bring it this time."

"I see..."

Tohru and Kurama stood in Kurama's room. Kurama's mother had sent the classmate upstairs when he had arrived.

After a moment of silence, Higashii asked. "So what's wrong with you?"

"What?" Kurama said.

"You're sick, right?"

"I'm not." Kurama said. "I just got a clean bill of health."

Surprisingly, Higashii frowned. "That can't be right."

"It is, I assure you."

"You look sick."

Kurama frowned. What could he say to that? HIgashii was determined. "I'm just tired."

"Why?"

Kurama paused and looked over at the other boy now sitting on top of his desk. He had a book open in his hands and was regarding Kurama seriously. Of course, the other boy always looked serious.

Instead of answering, Kurama motioned towards the book. "What part are you?" he asked.

"Part?" Tohru glanced at the book as though he had forgotten he was holding it. "Oh. I'm Retainer #2. I have about 5 lines to say, "Yes, sire." "No, sire" "Watch out, sire!" "Down in that castle is a monster, sleeping soundly on a treasure worth more than our lives." and "Youko stole it all!" "

"I see." Kurama said, noting that each line had been delivered in monotone.

"Yeah. I don't care. I'd rather not be in the play at all." He looked out the window. "How about you?"

Kurama smiled. "I think it is a funny play."

Tohru turned towards him. "It's a tragedy."

"Oh." Kurama said. He hadn't finished reading it yet. "What happens at the end?"

Tohru shrugged and tossed the book to Kurama. "Read for yourself." he said and returned to staring out the window.

Kurama opened the book to the final pages and as he read, despite himself, Tohru was saying. "It's actually kinda sad. I liked the youko a lot."

Kurama glanced up at him, but his eyes were locked on something in the distance. Kurama thought of asking him just what he was seeing, but didn't.

The last lines said:

_No treasures so great as can heal these wounds._

_It was indeed a treasure worth more than my life._

_My trickster days are ended here_

_True I loved but was not loved in return._

_It was enough._

_And now...it is over._

Kurama read the lines again. "It _is _a tragedy."

"Yeah." Higashii said. "It's good, if you're into that kind of thing. Magical creatures, demons, unrequited love, swords and..."

"Death." Kurama said.

Tohru shrugged.

Kurama read the line over and over again. He couldn't imagine himself saying it. Who chose this play?

"Minamino?"

It hardly seemed fair to have such an ending.

"Minamino?"

A tragedy - and he had been laughing so hard the night before.

"_Minamino_!"

"Wha...?" Kurama started, coming back to himself to find Tohru standing in front of him. He had taken a hold of Kurama's shoulders and was leaning close, saying his name.

"Something's really wrong with you, eh, Minamino? You really zoned out there for a minute."

Kurama shook his head and was about to answer when he noticed how close Tohru was holding him and how large his eyes were. The way that the light caught them, Kurama could imagine they were red.

"Minamino?" Tohru asked again as Kurama closed his eyes and leaned the final distance between them.

Their lips touched.

For a moment there was surprise and the next that mouth responded and sighed against his own.

"Minamino..." Tohru whispered and Kurama didn't answer because he wasn't sure what name would be on his lips should he reply.

_...to be continued..._

**_Author's Note:_** _OK. That was the first installment, the next coming soon! Hope you liked it! This one should be pretty long and at the end Kurama ends up with....Nah. Can't tell, that would ruin the surprise.... :) Don't worry! I'll post the next part VERY soon or I can do one a day, but I don't think I'd have the rest finished by the time I run out of chapters that way, but your guys' call, ok? :)_


	6. Chapter 6

That night Kurama went for a walk alone.

At least, it started as a walk. He did walk to the park and stood beneath the leafless trees and watched the stillness around him. Then, he vanished.

Or, he seemed to vanish.

He had started to run and jumped into the trees, feet ghosting the balance between paper-thin branches. Tree to tree he went until he reached the end of the park and took a running jump onto the low roof of a shrine.

There he let himself stop and lay down on the apex of the temple. He looked up at the sky.

He closed his eyes and listened to the city for a moment. It was loud and all around. He heard a baby crying close-by and a mother begin to sing. He heard traffic slow as a light turned from green to yellow. He opened his eyes and willed the sounds away.

He had kissed Tohru.

He could still feel that mouth against his own, uncertain and eager as the kiss deepened.

Then it was over and Tohru was staring at him with eyes too wide.

A hand flew to his mouth and he had said, "Minamino...?"

He fled then.

Kurama didn't try to stop him and didn't call after him.

It had been a mistake.

Kurama made very few mistakes.

"Kurama? Are you alright?" Kurama started at the voice and sat up.

"Botan?" Kurama said.

The ferry girl smiled then, the worried expression gone just like that. "Hi-iiii, Kurama. Long time no see."

Botan floated a foot to the side of Kurama, perched perfectly on her oar, her blue hair blew in the late wind. Against her pale face it was like clouds against the moon.

"Indeed." Kurama said and smiled. "Can I ask what is the occassion?"

"Oh. Of course!" Botan said. Her smile had slipped and she had been starting to look at Kurama with that concerned look again. Now, she pointed at him. "Koenma wants to see you."

"Koenma? Why?"

Botan shrugged. "He didn't tell me...but..." She leaned in closer. "Have you seen Hiei lately, Kurama?"

The answer was immediate. "No."

"No one has. He delivered a tape to Yusuke the other day and then...." She shrugged again.

"He has gone after Yukina."

Botan blinked. She hadn't been told Kurama knew about Hiei's sister. "Yes. I think Koenma fears what he will do when he finds her. And her captors."

"Of course." Kurama said. "I'll go at once."

"Good!" Botan said as Kurama stood. "I'll go back and tell Koenma you're on your way."

Kurama nodded and stood. He was walking away when Botan called. "Kurama. Are you not feeling well?" Kurama turned and Botan quickly stammered. "Of course...I'm sure you are! Fit as a fiddle! It's just that..." Her voice trailed off.

Kurama smiled at her concern. "Thank you, Botan, but I am fine." His smiled grew slightly and then he turned and started to walk again. Botan heard him laugh softly. "In fact I just visited the doctor this morning."

Botan watched him go. Something was wrong. Perhaps she shouldn't have sent him to Koenma, but she had no choice, did she?

"Kurama..." she whispered and the wind echoed, _Kurama...  
_

_...to be continued..._


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Kurama went to school.

He left early, leaving right after his mother. The sun wasn't up yet and in that early time people were just starting to move in the city like leaves softly rustling in a tree.

It felt like he hadn't been to class forever now.

As he walked he realized he was glad to be returning.

A return to normalcy.

He glanced down as a weed growing between the cracks in the pavement wrapped against his ankle as he waited at a crosswalk. He smiled down at it and it brushed against him again like a happy cat.

Well, as normal as things got.

He wrapped a scarf around his throat more snug and stuck his hands in his pockets.

It was cold.

In the Spirit World it still felt like late summer. However, Kurama had to conceed it ALWAYS felt like late summer in the Spirit World.

"I'll go after him." Kurama had told Koenma as the diminuative god sat and look worried.

"If you only could." Koenma said and sighed. "Your spirit energy is so low I couldn't sense you coming. An oni ran in here before you arrived and told me there was a human loose in the castle." Koenma's eye narrowed. "He meant you, of course."

"I see..." Kurama said. Koenma had just told him that Hiei truly was missing. He was evading all his eyes in the human world. He had become as good as a vengeful spirit, but if he truly killed Yukina's captors, none of Kurama's words or deals would save him. "But I have to do something."

Koenma looked up at him. The fox looked terrible and as human as Koenma had ever seen him. His face was pinched and pale. His eyes were dry and exhausted and he still managed to look beautiful.

"Rest." Koenma said. "That is what you can do, but..." Koenma held up a hand as Kurama began to protest. "Return tomorrow. If your energy is sufficient and if it is necessary, you can go after Hiei. I am sorry that I called you. If I had known that you were...."

"I am tired, but I am not without my reserves...or my resources. If you find Hiei on the brink of doing what he must not do, send someone to alert me." Koenma looked into green eyes that made a better case of imploring him than the words. "Please. Koenma."

Koenma had agreed.

Kurama looked up into the sky above the line of the cityscape, but his thoughts were far away.

"Minamino."

Kurama started.

The light at the cross-walk was flashing. On the other side of the road the boy called him again, but neither of them move.

"Tohru?" Kurama said.

_...to be continued..._


	8. Chapter 8

Tohru Higashii looked away first.

There had been a long pause of silence in which the two boys just stared at each other across their distances.

"Tohru?" Kurama said again.

The other boy wasn't even looking at him. The crosswalk light was red. He said something softly and his cheeks blushed. Kurama watched as he gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists and repeated, louder this time. "Do you want to walk to school?"

Kurama didn't answer until the light changed again. A small crowd had gathered, waiting to cross the street. Kurama walked across the street with them, but stopped before his classmate on the other side. People streamed around them. "We should go,then, or we'll be late." he said.

"Yeah." Tohru said neutrally, barely looking at Kurama, and fell into step beside him.

They walked in silence, Tohru with his head down. Time to time Kurama caught him stealing glances his way.

"Higashii..." Kurama began as they stopped in front of the school. The yard was empty. They were both so early....Kurama knew why he was early-he had wanted to avoid running into his fan-club. He hadn't expected that Tohru would be there and waiting for him. And he _had _been waiting, and from the bags under his eyes, he had been there for a while. "We need to talk..." Higashii didn't look up. "Higashii..." Kurama pressed.

However.

Instead of answering, Higashii suddenly looked up and Kurama had a moment to catch the determine look on his face before he found himself suddenly pulled forward and his mouth pressed against the boy's.

"Tohru!" Kurama managed as he was finally released, but the other boy was gone.

Kurama stared after him, then sat down in the middle of the school yard. "Tohru...." he whispered.

_...to be continued..._


	9. Chapter 9

"Does your school have a new uniform, Kurama?" Koenma asked as Kurama entered his office in a white suite, complete with stiff collar and sash.

Kurama sighed. "My class is putting on a play." he explained.

"Ah. A costume."

"Of sorts." It was true, this was the costume, but not the entire outfit. He had left out the youko ears and tail. Ridiculous things, anyway. They had given him five tails too many. "Have you found Hiei?"

"Yes." Koenma said. "He has been sighted in the woods where Yukina is being held. Yuusuke has just entered the mansion..."

"What's wrong, Koenma?"

Now, what Koenma wanted to say was that a demon named Toguro and his brother were also in the mansion. He wanted to say he was worried that this case was more than it seemed at the least and perhaps too much for the Spirit Detective, Kuwabara and Botan to handle. That's what he was thinking, now what he said was, "Nothing. It's just things are going surprisingly according to plan."

"I would like to go and help."

"No." Perhaps Koenma said it too forcefully. Kurama raised an eyebrow at him. "That is. Not yet. Wait until you are needed. Your spirit energy is not much better than yesterday."

"No. It isn't." There was a reason for that and it was two words: Tohru Higashii.

After school the other boy had watched him a little too close during play practice and the other students had noticed. Of course, with the way that Tohru was looking at Kurama they all thought that he just was plotting to murder the other teen. Then, after practice, Tohru had indeed approached Kurama, but all he said was, "I'll walk you home."

It was strange. The two boys hadn't said a thing on the way to Kurama's house. Kurama had gazed into Tohru's back as they walked and thought about what he should be saying, but he couldn't. Everytime he began, it was as if Tohru knew and he would make a comment on a movie or on a classmate or the play.

It was uncanny.

And very unfortunate.

They parted company, both realizing they would eventually have to talk.

Especially Kurama.

Which was all fine, except for the fact that because of that walk Kurama hadn't been able to use the time to replenish his energy.

His thoughts must have shown on his face because Koenma asked if he was alright. "Fine." Kurama said.

So they both had their little secrets.

In the end, everything is always revealed, to whatever consequences it might entail.

_...to be continued..._


	10. Chapter 10

The next day Kurama finally saw Hiei. The Jiganshii had almost murdered his sister's captors.

It was also the day Kurama almost killed Tohru.

Strange coincidence that.

It was play practice. Kurama sported the ridiculous tails and ears and awaited Retainer #2 to deliver his lines.

_"With such wealth, you would think a man satisfied."_

_"But...Youko is not a man."_

They were on the roof because the band had taken the theater to practice for an upcoming concert. Most everyone was freezing and their lines bounced with their shivering lips. Someone sneezed and Kurama glanced in the direction. Tohru sat miserably off to the side. It must have been the morning he had gotten up early to wait for Kurama. He had caught a cold.

"Down in that castle is a monster, sleeping soundly on a treasure worth more than our lives" he whispered again under his breath, waiting for his queue.

Kurama stepped into the mist of the players. He heard Tohru go silent and felt the weight of his gaze. He ignored it. "It is true that my wealth is greater than kings. It is true that I am not a mortal man. This, however, is the only truth. That treasure _is _worth more than all my wealth combined, but more so, there is a second purpose."

"A second?"

"Yes." Kurama paused, "Love."

"But...."

"But?"

There was a silence. The silence stretched. The players sitting off to the side all glanced in the same direction. "Tohru. Your line." One of them said.

Tohru shook himself. He had been rubbing his head. "Right." he said and stood, coming to stand squarly in front of Kurama. "Down in that castle is a monster, sleeping soundly on a treasure worth more than our lives!" he exclaimed.

"And love!" Another actor said.

"Nothing is worth more than love." Kurama said and saw Tohru watching him through the corner of his eye. "That most rare of wines, that finest of pleasures. I'll find you someone and make you drunk on love and we will never disagree again!"

There were laughs, but Tohru wasn't laughing. Kurama turned and saw him staring right at him.

He decided today he would talk to the boy no matter what.

After practice, Kurama walked over to him. He was sitting, rubbing his temples, a sneeze accenting his misery once in a while. "I'll walk you home." Kurama said.

Tohru paused and glanced up at him. "If you don't mind." he said, but his gaze told another story.

Kurama walked beside Tohru and eventually said simply, "Tohru?"

"Hn?"

Kurama paused at that, then resolutely forged on. "We have to talk."

"No we don't."

Kurama sighed and stopped. They were at a crosswalk again. It was late in the day and there weren't very many people there. The light told them to walk, but the two boys didn't move a muscle, just regarded each other carefully.

Kurama knew he had to choose his words well. It had, after all, been his fault this had happened in the first place.

If only he weren't so tired.

He hadn't been sleeping well between school and dreams and summons from Koenma to Spirit World and to make matters worst, he wouldn't be able to do what was necessary to replenish his energy before he had to return to Koenma tonight.

He sighed.

"Tohru. About that night, I have to tell you..."

"It was a mistake." Tohru finished.

Kurama nodded uncertainly. "Yes."

"It meant nothing."

Kurama didn't like where this was going. "Yes."

"I know."

Kurama just blinked. "What do you mean?"

It was Tohru's turn to sigh. "Do you really think I don't think the same thing, Minamino? I mean...you...you kissed me...." He looked away. "I had never been kissed before. I thought my first would be some desperate girl, not....you." He turned and looked Kurama in the eye. "I don't know what happened. I never looked at you in that way, but when you kissed me...it felt right."

"Tohru..."

Tohru shook his head. "I don't know what that means. Maybe it doesn't MEAN anything. 'It was just a mistake'-I tell myself that all the time. 'It meant nothing.'-only I think it did. I just-for the life of me-have no idea what."

"Tohru." Kurama watched as the other boy's face underwent a swift transformation, from indifference to a lost look. Kurama watched this and had no idea what to do. In his mind all he could think of was how much like Hiei he looked, even now and hated himself for the thought. When Tohru reached for him, he let him, accepted the embrace. Tohru didn't try to kiss him, he only held him as though the touch would bring an osmosis of understanding. Kurama, however, had nothing like that to offer him.

"Hey..." Tohru said and laughed. "I should go home." He pulled away and Kurama regarded him uncertainly. "I'll see you tomorrow. At school."

"Yes. Tomorrow." Kurama said, not sure what to say. He thought of the serious face he had seen when he had first met Tohru. He had never imagined the boy possessed a face like the one he now wore.

Tohru nodded and turned and Kurama waited a moment before turning. He was halfway across the street when he spotted a spirit messanger from Koenma in the sky.

His heart stopped. "Hiei...." he whispered, fearing that the fire-demon had done the worst.

He barely heard a voice calling, "Minamino!"

He didn't even see the car.

When he came back to himself, he was on his back and Tohru was on top of him.

"What...?" Kurama said, disoriented. His eyes turned from HIgashii to the sky. He couldn't see the messanger anymore. Where had it gone?

Suddenly Higashii grabbed the front of his shirt and hawled him up so their faces were inches away. "What the hell was that?" Higashii roared. "Were you trying to get yourself killed?"

Kurama didn't answer. "Hiei..." he whispered.

"Minamino...." Higashii said in a voice sunk somewhere between rage and relief, tinged by curiosity and mixed with the faint stirrings of more concern than he should have felt towards the other boy. He didn't even realize that he himself was bleeding and neither did Kurama until the other boy's eyes rolled back into his head and he sunk onto Kurama's chest, unconscious.

But, as stated, this was the same day that Kurama finally saw Hiei.

But it was strange, when he set eyes on the Jiganshii, he had been sure there would have been nothing else on his mind, that he would have felt a peace and an ache of what was behind them.

He did feel an ache, but there was no peace. As for what was on his mind, that would be Tohru and Tohru alone.

It must have been guilt, right?

Right?

_...to be continued...._

_**Author's Note: **Hi! Thank you SOOOO much to everyone who read this story and to those who reviewed it (Such nice people!:) This is actually **everything **I have written so far. I WILL have more posted somewhere between Friday and Monday (I hope), but I just haven't written it yet. So! What do you think? Will Tohru die? Will Kurama and Hiei get back together (were they ever REALLY together?) and! What about the PLAY!???? All questions will be answered in the upcoming chapters of.....A FOX TALE!!!!!!! (end music score.... :) Please review if you liked it! (or if you didn't :) See ya! Ja ne!_


	11. Chapter 11

"What are you looking at, Fox?" Hiei asked.

"Wha..." Kurama started. He realized he had been staring at the Jaganshii. He couldn't even say how long.

Hiei frowned.

They stood in the the observation room of Turukune's mansion. At the current moment, said owner of said mansion was relearning how to breathe on the floor. That was only thanks to Yukina. Had Hiei had his way, the man would have been dead and Hiei would have been punished...

It had been close.

"I was just thinking..." Kurama said. Hiei raised an eyebrow. "About a classmate of mine. He...got in an accident today." Hiei just stared at him for a moment. The moment stretched and Kurama blinked slowly. "Hiei?"

"Hn. I didn't ask what you were thinking, Fox." He started to leave the room and paused. Kurama had turned to gaze out the observation window. He could see Yukina now. She was tending to the injured Kuwabara. Kurama had never seen her before. It was strange how at once she was so like and so different from her brother. "Coming?"

Kurama started. His thoughts had started to wonder again. "I can't Hiei. I have to go visit my classmate in the hospital."

Hiei regarded him for a moment. Kurama kept his expression schooled. It didn't matter that the fire demon knew he was hiding something.

It was strange. Seeing Hiei for the first time since Kurama had saved the Jaganshii's life felt like he was meeting him for the first time. He felt nothing in the gaze that watched him. Here was a new face than the one he was used to. Here was a Hiei who would never crush his mouth to his own with no more warning than a "Hn.". This Hiei, in fact, watched him with eyes full of suspicion. Kurama saw this and redoubled his efforts to keep his thoughts off of his face.

Instead he thought of Tohru.

The human had fallen onto his chest, head bleeding. It had been when Tohru had thrown them both to the concrete. Tohru himself had fallen forward hard and fast. Kurama had looked down at the ribbons on blood on his head, and touched his hair and in that instant that he thought him dead.

It was at that moment that he had looked at the boy had for the first time since meeting him, and distinguished him completely from Hiei.

"Tohru..." he had whispered, the crowd gathering around them, the owner of the car that had almost killed Kurama and the boy in his arms was yelling something about being in the middle of the street.

Tohru looked nothing more than human.

Hiei now seemed to come to some decision. "After, then. I have something to ask you."

"Ask me?" Kurama said.

"Yes." Hiei said and there it was again-that suspicious, knowing look. Kurama met the Jaganshii's red-eyed gaze and smiled.

"Very well." Kurama said.

It was not the reunion he had imagined.

_...to be continued..._


	12. Chapter 12

Kurama left then and Hiei lingered in the observation room.

With one red eye, he watched the rising and falling chest of the human who had kidnapped his sister and with the other, he watched the fox go.

As for the _other _eye...

The jagan lazily blinked on his forehead, the purple pupil dialated. Hiei concentrated and he watched as the fox wondered back up the empty halls of the mansion. Thinking he was alone, he had dropped the obvious pretense and his face was animated with his thoughts.

The damn fox always thought too much.

Hiei sighed as the image vanished.

It had been hard to watch for that long. Hiei reached up and the eye closed. The fire demon ran a hand over the closed lid. There was something wrong with his jagan.

Why hadn't he been able to see what Tukurune was up to? Why hadn't he been able to protect Yukina?

Why did things not add up?

And then the fox was acting strange.

Why did things not add up, indeed?

"Hiei?"

Hiei turned.

In the doorway stood Yusuke. The Spirit Detective was suporting Kuwabara. The red haired giant of a teen didn't seem all that happy for the help had it not been that Yukina was suporting him on the other side. He didn't seem to notice that Yusuke and Hiei were talking, let alone that they were in the same room.

"Hn." said Hiei. His eyes were on Kuwabara and his sister.

One day he _would _kill the human.

"Where's Kurama?" Yusuke asked, looking this way and that as though the fox would jump out at any second.

"Why would I know?"

"I don't know." Yusuke said in a smart-ass voice. "Lately you've been keeping tabs, so I'd thought you'd know. I need help with my homework since I've just crossed off "save the day" from my to-do list."

Hiei's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'keeping tabs'?"

Yusuke's eyes rolled. "Keeping tabs. Watching out for. Stalking. Get the idea?"

"I haven't.."

"You came to my place just the other night looking for him. Anyway. I doesn't matter. Do you know calculus, Hiei?"

Hiei didn't answer. It seemed he was about to ask something else, or deny something, but instead, he just turned and vanished. For a second, in his mind, amid his thoughts on so many things, his failure to save his sister this terrible experience, his memories of a world of ice and falling, fighting, fear, came a memory closer to a dream than reality. It might have been an image from a dream, but for a moment, it was clear, so clear, he could reach out and grab it, taste it. Then it was gone except for one thing. A familiar face. "Kurama..." Hiei said to himself.

Yusuke watched him go. The Spirit Detective was looking desperate. "Yukina," He asked. "How about you?"

Yukina just laughed, but through the corner of her red eye, she, too, watched Hiei go.

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note: **Sorry about the short update! Hopefully I can write more this weekend. If the story sounds kinda weird, like there's something missing, just know this is the fourth in a series. You can read them by clicking my name "danceDANCEdance" at the top of the screen, or there's a short summary at the start of this story. More updates soon! Sorry if this update was strange or confusing! Am really tired! O!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS!!!!!! I truly appreciate it (I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!) :)_


	13. Chapter 13

Kurama stood at the foot of the hospital.

A few people walked the grounds, people with worried expressions, thoughts turned inward. Kurama looked at them and wondered if he, too, looked like that.

He sighed.

He really shouldn't have come. It was so late. Visiting hours would long since have been over. He gazed up the face of the building.

Kurama hadn't been able to follow his classmate into the ambulance. The EMS had turned to him and told him which hospital they were taking Tohru. It must have been the look on his face, and the way he kept his eyes on the other boy the whole time.

And now he had come here.

His mother had sounded worried when he had called her to say he would be late. "Are you alright, Shuiichi?" she had asked. "You sound strange."

"Yes, mother." he had said.

He sounded strange, he looked sick...that's what a lot of people had been saying lately.

When had things gotten so complicated?

The answer to that was simple...Since Hiei had found him that day.

Kurama shook his head.

Hiei and Tohru, his mother, Yukina, Kuwabara, Yusuke, school, the play, the youko....there were too many people in his mind. He rubbed his temple and willed the thinking away, if only for a night.

He was exhausted, but he wanted to see Tohru.

He wanted to make sure the human was alright.

It had been his fault.

He just wanted to make sure he was alright.

That's all.

Resolute, Kurama entered the hospital. It was easy to find Tohru's room and sneak in without a soul seeing him. The boy was alone. And asleep. He lay on the hospital bed with his eyes closed and a bandage around his head.

Kurama looked down at him. The lights were the pale lights of a hospital that seem to make Tohru look paler than he really was, and more fragile than he really was.

Kurama reached out and touched the bandages on his forehead.

_"I don't know what that means." _Isn't that what Tohru had said that afternoon? "_Maybe it doesn't MEAN anything. 'It was just a mistake'-I tell myself that all the time. 'It meant nothing.'-only I think it did. I just-for the life of me-have no idea what."_

Kurama's hand had slipped down, brushing against his cheeks and his lips...He suddenly pulled away.

What was he doing?

He turned away and covered his face with his hands.

Yesterday all that had been on his mind was Hiei. Perhaps, Kurama, too, was wondering just what had the kiss meant and what did it mean now that he had come here?

Tohru stirred suddenly on the bed, but when he opened his eyes, the room was empty. The boy tiredly surveyed the room. He could have sworn he had heard someone in the brief moment from waking to opening his eyes, but no one was here.

"That's strange." he murmured as he lay back down on the pillows and drifted back to sleep. "I could swear I can smell....roses..."

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note:** Well! I wrote this part this morning and I'll try to write more this weekend. Is it confusing? If so, I'll try to explain more. Don't worry! The real plot is coming! Hope you like it! :)_


	14. Chapter 14

Hiei watched Kurama enter the hospital. He watched him, with help from the jagan, as Kurama stealthly made his way into Tohru's room and closed the door behind him. He watched as he lingered by the door, staring across the room at the sleeping human.

It was very strange.

Kurama had said that the human had been injured in an accident, but the look on Kurama's face was nothing less than guilty.

There was something wrong here. Not just with the fox, although between this little night visit to a human hospital and the way that he had stared at Hiei at Turukune's mansion, as though he was expecting the Jaganshii to do something, say something... But then, there was something else...Yusuke had said he had been "keeping tabs" on the fox...but Hiei had no idea what he was talking about.

He hadn't been watching the fox...

But Yusuke said he had come to his home the other night and asked him about Kurama...but Hiei couldn't remember doing that, but he didn't know why the Detective would lie about something so trivial.

Hiei was thinking that he would confront the fox, but not yet...first he would have his help...

"Tohru..." That was Kurama. Hiei's attention had shifted for a moment, and when he returned his eyes to Kurama and the human, he saw Kurama reach out and touch the other boy's cheek, watched his hand run softly over his lips.

For a moment, Hiei felt his heart lurch, then tighten. His eyes widened and his fists unconsciously balled...

Then Kurama had stepped back from the boy as though the touch had burned him. By the time the boy woke, Kurama had fled.

But Hiei was still watching the hopsital room.

The boy returned to sleep.

The room returned to a late-night stillness, but Hiei still watched it.

His fists were closed so tight his nails dug into his skin. His heart was pounding.

He stared at the empty hospital room and for the life of him, he couldn't say why the sight of Kurama and a human had done this to him....

And far below him, walking among the late night hospital dwellers, Kurama, his thoughts on the human boy asleep in the pale-colored hospital, for his own actions, was equally confounded...

_...to be continued..._


	15. Chapter 15

Kurama walked.

It was late. He should return home.

He was so tired. His bones felt hallow. His eyes were lead.

He was glad that Tohru was alright.

He was glad...

Kurama shook his head. He had so many things to be "glad" for lately, and yet here he was...He sighed.

Hiei was alright and Tohru was alive.

That was enough, wasn't it?

Kurama glanced up the empty corridor of the night and the empty sidewalk stretched in front of him, punctuated by streetlights.

He needed to sleep. He wanted nothing more than to return to his home.

Home.

For the first time in so long, the picture that came into his mind at the word 'home', wasn't the one he shared with his 'ka-san. It wasn't the one Shuiichi adored and held so dear.

It was the one far away. The one that he hadn't seen for so long.

The demon world.

THAT home.

Kurama didn't realize that he was smiling until he stopped in his step and touched his own mouth.

Home.

The boundless sky, the horizon flowing through mountains and castles where the earth itself was alive and the plants and wind called to him, "_Kurama_...._Kurama_..."

Kurama had come to a stop at a playground.

Around him, a swing moved in the wind, a merry-go-round creaked. The moon cast a watery shadow on a melted puddle of snow.

Of course, in the Demon World, they wouldn't call "Kurama", they would call _"Youko...Youko...."_

He remembered his days there, far less simple and yet not so complex.

A boundless freedom there.

No human heart.

No Hiei.

No Tohru.

No 'ka-san.

Just for a moment, could it be, he prefered it that way?

Kurama shook his head. That was the youko.

He hadn't heard that voice in his head for a long time. Cold and cruel, cunning and clever, the Youko Kurama had left behind 15 years ago.

_That treasure is worth more than all my wealth combined, but more so, there is a second purpose."_

_"A second?"_

_"Yes." Kurama paused, "Love."_

Kurama walked to a swing and sat down.

Such a line, Kurama had to laugh. Youko would never had said that. There would NOT be a prize worth more than wealth, no matter how great. Certainly not love.

Perhaps that is why Kurama was so lonely now.

Centuries of lonliness. Centuries of love so brief a candle flame lasted longer.

Kurama kicked his feet against the dirt of the playground and shook his head. Why was he thinking about this?

He was not Youko.

He was not Shuiichi.

He was Kurama.

He knew that, everything else, however, was so uncertain....

_...to be continued..._


	16. Chapter 16

Hiei stood in front of a building.

The building was half-way torn down, gutted. Around it trash, debrie, machines, fences and moonlight.

Hiei turned towards that moon.

He had come to a decision. He would not wait for the fox. He would do this alone.

In the palms of his two hands, blood-red cresents ached from when he had balled his fists so hard.

It didn't matter.

Why had he thought to ask the fox's help at all?

What could the fox do?

Why would he help him?

"Damned Kurama...." Hiei growled between clenched teeth.

The moment he had realized that Yukina was safe, truly safe, he had decided to do this. In the moment he had realized that he had failed her, his jagan had failed him, he had chosen to do this.

A simple spell.

An effective spell.

A powerful spell.

A dangerous spell.

That was why he had asked Kurama to accompany him. He laughed at his cowardice. He didn't need the fox.

He would do this alone.

He raised his left hand towards the moon and tried to clear his mind. It didn't quite work.

"Damn you, Kurama..." Hiei whispered in a too-soft voice as warm power began to gather around him.

But why...?

Why did the fox's face appear before him over and over again?

Why did his mind return like a perpetual thing to that moment when Kurama had touched the human and said the boy's name in such a voice?

Why?

Hiei told himself he didn't care.

It didn't matter.

The spell sparked around him and Hiei gasped. This was it, if he could only contain it.

No more weakness. He would never fail Yukina again.

He would be strong.

Nothing else mattered.

He felt power hum in his blood, catch up to the frequency of the humming of his rapidly beating heart.

Somewhere between the moon and the earth, as power erupted a black fire, Hiei screamed.

_...to be continued..._


	17. Chapter 17

Kurama didn't hear Hiei scream.

He felt it.

It raised every hair on his body and he was on his feet in the next moment.

Eyes wide, torn from his throughts, he stared into space as again came the sound that brushed against his skin.

"Hiei!" Kurama said, voice shaking.

He turned and bounded out of the park.

He could feel Hiei's youki now. It didn't feel right. There was something wrong with it. It was swelling rapidly, like the exansion of a ballon reaching its limits.

"Hiei..." Kurama whispered and ran faster.

He had forgotten. He had forgotten. The Jaganshi had wanted to meet with him. He had had a question.

Was this the answer to that question he had never asked?

Kurama came to a skidding stop in front of a fence and for a moment paused, pressed himself against the mesh, looping his fingers in and stared at the sight before him. 

A building lay in ruins and a construction yard had been torn into pieces of plastic and metal confettii and there, in the center of it all...was Hiei.

The fire-demon was on his knees, his eyes heavy-lidded. He was barely conscious.

Kurama stared at him and wondered what he had done.

The power swirling around the other demon was massive, winged with a dark movement that almost seemed alive.

What had the Jaganshi done?

"Ku...Kurama...." 

Kurama's head jerked up.

Hiei was staring straight at him.

"Hiei?" Kurama said, pressing his face against the fence.

Those two red eyes blinked one, twice. "Damned...fox...." Hiei said and slumped foreward.

"HIEI!!!"

Kurama jumped the fence, and in what seemed like a single step, he was at Hiei's side, pulling the injured demon in his arms and calling his name over and over.

He was so intent on that face that he never saw what was happening around him.

That rarely happened for Kurama.

The cloud of black energy swirling around his head swirled once, then turned calm. That's why Kurama finally glanced up at him. Then, before his wide, questioning eyes, the cloud exploded.

For Kurama, then, all went dark, darker, gone...

...to be continued...

_**Author's Note: **Hiiiiii-ya! It's been a week since I've posted! Sorry! Hope this is worth the wait! Wai!!!! It continues!!! What will happen next (well, I KNOW, but you guys... :)) Don't worry, you won't have to wait too long! I should have an update this weekend. Tell me what you think! Thank you guys so much for all your kind reviews!!!!! :) _

_**Author's Note #2: **Sapphire Angel: Thank you again for the edits! I WILL put them in here, but I probably won't be able to edit the text for a while...but it **will **be done!!!! Thanks again! :)_


	18. Chapter 18

Across the city, lights flickered on in windows.

"What was that?"

That's what people asked each other, passing on the streets.

"Was it an earthquake?"

In a particular house, Shiori Minamino woke from her sleep. Sitting up in bed, she waited, but whatever it was, earthquake or not, it was gone. She lay back down to go to sleep, but couldn't. Instead, she got out of bed, put on her robe and walked down the hall.

She had a strange feeling...

The house felt empty.

She stood in the doorway of Kurama's room.

She didn't need to turn on the light.

Her son was gone.

"Shuiichi..." she whispered.

Lately, she knew something was bothering him.

Lately, he simply hadn't been himself, even Kurama couldn't hide that from his human mother.

Shiori stared into the unoccupied room and didn't know what to do.

She felt, suddenly, that helpless, like this empty room was the start of something.

Her eyes felt suddenly hot and she wiped away a tear.

"Shuiichi..." she whispered.

The wind blew through the open window and the indifferent moon shone on an empty bed.

_...to be continued..._


	19. Chapter 19

"What the hell was that?" Yusuke said under his breath as he hurried up the streets.

The people who didn't yell at him to slow down and watch where he was going were whispering about earthquakes.

Yusuke would've laughed if he wasn't running so fast. Whatever it was, this had been no earthquake.

He couldn't imagine anyone could mistake it for one.

Youki was so thick on the air he was almost choking on it.

"There." he said to himself and came to a skidding stop in front of a construction zone.

There was a pile of rubble where once a buidling had stood. The fence behind which Yusuke stood was bowed out; the force of the blast had done that.

Yusuke had left Kuwabara sleeping at his place. The red head hadn't even budged as the sky (at least to Yusuke's eyes) lit up blood red. The fight with Togoro had taken a lot out of him.

He wondered now as he scaled the fence whether he should have dragged him out here anyway.

He walked across the empty yard and noted whatever had happen had snapped a crane in two. He walked over one half of it. The other half was upside down on the other side of the yard.

Suddenly, he stopped.

He could see two figures just ahead.

Yususke tensed as one of those figures suddenly sat up and looked straight at him.

"Hiei?" Yusuke said.

The Jaganshi's clouded gaze cleared and then he just scowled back at Yusuke.

"What the hell happened?" Yusuke demanded as he came over to the fire demon.

Hiei didn't answer. He was looking at the figure that lay beside him.

As Yusuke came closer, he saw that the other figure was Kurama. "Hey..." Yusuke said as he crouched down and reached towards the green eyed fox. "Is he OK?"

"Why should I care?" Hiei said after a moment, but his eyes lingered on Kurama. Abruptly and a bit shakily, Hiei stood and in the next instant, he was gone.

"Damn it, Hiei." Yusuke said to no one. He sighed. Well, at least it wasn't some pissed off demon about to end the world..."Hey, Kurama." Yusuke said as he shook the other boy's shoulder.

Kurama was more than pale-he was white.

His thick red hair fell over his face, spilled around him. It was funny...Yusuke had never noticed how long his hair was...Yusuke's eyes narrowed...It did seem really long now that he looked at it...

Yusuke's eyes widened.

That's when Kurama suddenly stirred in Yusuke's arms and opened his eyes to see a very wide eyed Spirit Detective looking down at him.

"Yusuke...?" Kurama whispered. He felt...strange. "Where's Hiei?" Yusuke was just staring at him. It was an almost funny look of shock on his face-Kurama would've laughed, but suddenly Yusuke leaned close and his eyes narrowed. "Yusuke?"

Instead of answering, Yusuke reached towards Kurama and touched his hair.

Kurama started.

"Yusuke?" he repeated.

Yusuke's eyes met his and suddenly, he pulled at something on Kurama's head.

Kurama yelped and reached towards Yusuke's hands.

The Spirit Detective let go and leaned back. Kurama, touching his own head, met his gaze. For a moment, they just stared at each other.

Yusuke had meant to demand what the hell had happened. What was that blast of Youki? What the hell had Kurama and Hiei been doing?

That's what he meant to say.

Instead he just pointed and laughed and Kurama stared with the most perfect look of suprise on his face as he ran his hands to the points of the two new fox ears on his head.

_...to be continued..._


	20. Chapter 20

Kurama sat in Yusuke's room.

"Here." Yusuke said as he handed Kurama a soda.

"Thanks." Kurama said and looked up to grab the soda.

Yusuke met his gaze and burst out in a new fit of laughter.

Kruama sighed and sipped the soda.

He was suprised they had made it back to Yusuke's house so quick. The detective kept breaking out laughing when his side-watching gaze fell upon the ears twitching on Kurama's head or the tail waving behind him. Especially the tail.

Kurama sighed again and touched the cold of the can to his forehead.

He felt awful.

"So, you gonna tell me what happen now?" Yusuke said and when Kurama looked up, he was glad to see the detective only break out in a lopsided grin as his eyes settled on Kurama. It was a start.

"What happened?" Kurama echoed and Yusuke nodded. Kurama closed his eyes and drank his soda. "I don't know."

"What?!"

"I don't know." Kurama confirmed. "I came upon Hiei casting some sort of spell...and then...." Kurama shrugged. He didn't elaborate on the pulsing darkness of that spell, the way it had surrounded both himself and Hiei like a living thing.

"But Hiei didn't get...he he...a tail."

One of Kurama's ears twitched. "I see." he said, trying to keep his voice pleasant. What had happened to the fire demon? Yusuke said he had left as soon as he woke. Was Hiei really OK?

"Sorry, Kurama." Yusuke said, but he was still chuckling.

Kurama just sighed. "It is probably just temporary. A side effect. There was a tremendous amount of youki in whatever spell Hiei cast. It must have brought my demon aspects to the surface."

"Yeah. Scary demon aspects like a bushy tale and little...he he he....ears."

Kurama sipped his soda and said ears twitched.

That's when Yusuke suprised him and said something very seriously. "What if it isn't temporary?"

Kurama looked out the window. He didn't answer.

"Hey, Kurama. You can stay here if you want."

"Stay?" Kurama said, looking back curiously at Yusuke.

Yusuke nodded and he looked surprised that the thought hadn't occurred to the fox. "Yeah. You can't go home like that...can you?"

Kurama let a moment pass before he replied. "No. I guess I can't." he said and thought about his mother. He would have to call her. She would wonder where he was when she found his bed empty in the morning. He would come up with an excuse. He always did. "Thank you, Yusuke." he said.

When he looked up, the Spirit Detective, for once, wasn't laughing. He had been watching the fox's face and the thoughts that had been as transparent there as day.

_...to be continued.._


	21. Chapter 21

Hiei paused at the top of a tree and leaned heavily against the trunk.

"Damn it." he whispered and touched his side.

Blood came away on his hand.

He sat down. His eyes were fluttering.

He was so tired.

His jagan was closed on his forehead.

Had the spell even worked?

At the last moment, he had lost control of the spell. It had spilled from his hand like a glass shattering against the ground.

And then Kurama had showed up.

Kurama...

Hiei let himself remember the fox laying on the ground looking too pale and his hair too red before his eyes resolutely shut.

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note #1:** Hi again! Sorry I didn't update last weekend like I said I would- I got caught up in a project for school! But!!!! I will try to do more this weekend since these chapters are pretty short-lots of stuff to come! Is Hiei OK? Will Kurama go back home-Will Shiori come after her son? What about Tohru? And will Yusuke ever stop laughing at poor Kurama? Stay tuned! Same channel same place! :)_

_**Author's Note #2:** I can never say thank you enough for all your guys' reviews! Thank you sooooooooooo much! :)_


	22. Chapter 22a

Kurama didn't sleep that night.

Yusuke snored wide-mouthed. Kurama could hear him from the bathroom where he stood staring at himself in the mirror.

It was a disturbing thing, this image looking back at him. Shuiichi the human with the fox ears and tail of the Youko.

Even Kurama's eyes...

Where once they had been green, now they were flecked with gold.

Kurama stared into those eyes and a piece of the Youko he had never seen in Shuiichi stared back at him.

And Hiei...Was Hiei alright? Was he, too, experiencing some side-effect? And what had he been trying to do?

Kurama thought about going after him when he heard a loud yawn behind him. He turned to see Yusuke standing there.

"You still up, Kurama?" he said.

Kurama nodded.

"Go to sleep. You need it. Don't make me knock you out to make you get some rest."

Kurama almost replied, but in the end, he didn't. He simply nodded.

Even so, he didn't sleep that night.

At the most, his thoughts were everywhere at once-Hiei especially, Youko, Tohru, his mother, home, school...and, at the least....

His tail kept getting in the way.

_...to be continued..._


	23. Chapter 23

Kurama sat in class the next day.

No one gave him any strange looks.

No one noticed anything different about Shuiichi Minamino.

After all, to them, there was no difference between the Shuiichi of the day before and the Shuiichi sitting there now.

"You're actually going to school?" Yusuke asked as Kurama put his shoes on.

Kurama nodded without looking up. Yusuke wasn't even halfway ready for school. After all, he wasn't going himself. "There is no choice." Kurama explained. "If I do not go the school will call my mother. Even I can not think of an excuse to everything." Kurama, listening to the sound of his own voice, thought it sounded on edge, something more than just tired.

"Yeah, you could say that, but I have a few reasons you shouldn't go and one just twitched." Yusuke smiled. The offending ear suddenly stilled. As Kurama rose, his tail swept across the floor. The tail seemed impossible soft, the hair impossibly fine. Of course, it was also a seemingly impossible thing that his friend standing there was actually a spirit fox, but now Yusuke thought, he was just being picky.

Kurama still hadn't turned. "They won't see anything."

"And just how are you going to do that, Kurama?" Yusuke asked, sounding skeptical.

Kurama turned then and Yusuke started. "I have my ways." he said and pulled a small seed from his hair.

"Uh-huh." Yusuke said, but his eyes weren't on the seed. They were on Kurama's face and the two eyes that were staring out at him with an expression Yusuke had never seen before. Yusuke wasn't sure he liked that look...or the fact that it seemed, for just a second, those eyes had changed...

The answer was, of course, the seed.

More so, it was the nectar it produced which Kurama had coated his skin and hair with. It had worked and that was good, but it would have to be a temporary thing.

The scent made his head pound.

Kurama squeezed the brim of his nose as someone in class read a passage from a book.

"Yusuke...." Kurama asked as he stood in the doorway of the spirit detective's home. "I have a favor."

"Yeah?" Yusuke asked. It didn't escape Kurama's attention that the detective was casting him a strange look, like he was searching for something in Kurama's face.

"Hiei..." Kurama began, "Will you find him and...see if he is alright?"

Of course, there was no guarantee that the detective would find him. Hiei knew how to hide. He was a theif after all, he knew the art of invisibility in a crowd, in a city, under one's own nose. After school, Kurama would steal away and try himself to find the Jaganshii himself.

"Hey, Minamino? How's Higashii?" A classmate said, turning around in his desk as the teacher wrote something on the board. Kurama started and the classmate laughed.

"Tohru?" Kurama said.

"Yeah. You know. Higashii Tohru. Short bastard with lots of attitude."

Kurama paused at the description. "He is alright."

"I heard what happened."

"Yes."

"Do you want to come to see him after school today?"

Kurama's eyes widened. "I..." he hesitated. "I can't."

"But...didn't he save your life or something?"

"Yes..." Kurama said and knew he would have to go. He glanced at the clock and hoped that Yusuke would have found Hiei by now.

While he was at it, he hoped that class would be over soon. His head was pounding and he suddenly felt sick. His eyes squeezed shut on their own and before his eyes he saw the spell that Hiei had cast, looming up and around him in his memory.

"Minamino? _Minamino_?"

Someone touched his arm and Kurama started and pulled away.

"Hey..."

That's when Kurama opened his eyes. The classmate who had asked about Tohru was looking at him closely. The class around them had paused and turned their way.

Kurama actually blushed.

"I'm sorry." he said.

The class regarded him for another long second, then went back to their work. Kurama buried his nose in a book.

Everyone went back to their business except for one person.

The classmate that had called Kurama's name did not turn away for some time. He stared down at Kurama for a long time and even when he turned back in his chair, his thoughts were on the boy behind him.

For a second, just a tiny moment, he thought, although it must be impossible....

For a second, weren't those eyes, usually so green, suddenly gold...suddenly inhuman?

But that was impossible.

Impossible, right.

Wasn't it?

_...to be contined..._

_**Author's Note:** Hi! Well! What can I say...it continues! I really wanted to write more this weekend, but I didn't have the time...I will try to write more during the week, but definately by the weekend! Don't worry! Tohru's coming back to the story and Hiei too....um...that might be a dangerous combination...As for Kurama...what'll happen to our favorite Kitsune? Whatever it is...I guarantee it'll be fun writing! (and hopefully fun **reading**, too :D ) See you next time and thank you guys for your reviews. A thousand hugs n' kisses! :)_


	24. Chapter 24

"Hey, Kuwabara, wake up." Yusuke said and nudged the sleeping red head.

"Yukinaaaa-sannnnn?" Came the half-awake response. Kuwabara opened an eye to see Yusuke barring his teeth and scowling at him. That would be considered kind of mean, even for Yusuke, considering what Kuwabara had done the day before...however, throw in the fact that Kuwabara was hugging Yusuke and calling him sweet-names...well...you understand then.

"Idiot!" Yusuke roared and clunked Kuwabara.

"Uremeshi?"

"Yeah-duh." Yusuke said, brushing off his clothes and frowning at his friend.

"Uh...sorry...." Kuwabara said, embarassed.

"Whatever. Let's never talk about it again." Yusuke stopped brushing himself off and pointed to Kuwabara.

"Wha...?"

"Come on. We're leaving."

"Why?"

"You're gonna help me find someone."

Kuwabara pulled away from Yusuke. He had been half-dragging him to the door. "What a minute! Do you realize that I already saved the planet yesterday? Even a man needs his rest, Yusuke. Who is it, anyway?" Yusuke said something and Kuwabara didn't quite catch it. "Who?" he repeated.

Yusuke threw his hands up. "It's Hiei, alright!"

Kuwabara shuddered. "Hiei?" he said. "Don't we want him lost and NOT found?"

"No. WE don't. It's a favor for Kurama."

Kuwabara sighed. "Wow. I go unconscious for a few hours and I wake up and have no idea what's going on."

"Yeah, dumb-ass."

"What's that, Uremeshi?"

Yusuke laughed and ran out the door and Kuwabara ran after him. Well....he did get him to come with him, at least.

_...to be continued..._


	25. Chapter 25

"Anything, Kuwaba?" Yusuke said.

Kuwabara rubbed his temple. "It isn't that easy, you know." he said and frowned. "But, it's funny I can't sense him at all."

Yusuke looked up at his friend. They had been searching for half the morning already with no sign of the Jaganshii. The look on the red head's face as he sat there wasn't like usual. In other words, "die, Hiei" wasn't written all over it. He looked...worried and that got Yusuke himself very, very concerned.

He never did get the answer out of Kurama.

What had Hiei and Kurama been doing last night and what was that surge of youki?

And this morning, Kurama's eyes had...

"Hey...I think I got something..." Kuwabara said.

Yusuke held back a jibe. He didn't have much choice. The giant there had taken off, running across the street, ignoring the horns blaring. "Hey! Wait! Kuwabara!" Yusuke called out and took off after him.

It was a long chase.

Yusuke dodged pedestrians and cars, crossed whole neighborhood blocks. When Kuwabara had taken off he had expected that Hiei would be...well within a mile at least. Maybe the whole sixth sense thing wasn't as refined as he thought. "Stupid....sixth....sense...." Yusuke breathed as he persued Kuwabara into a park.

There, Kuwabara came to a jolting stop, like he had come against a wall. He stood there, arms hung at his sides and his gaze turned upward and into a tree.

Yusuke came breathing hard next to his friend. For a moment he just held the tops of his knees and let sweet air flow into his lungs. It was Kuwabara's voice that brought him out of his rest, "Uremeshi?" Kuwabara said and his voice was strangely soft.

"Wh..what?" Yusuke said and straightened and looked at his friend. Sweat was falling into Kuwabara's eyes, but he didn't moved to wipe it away. In fact, his face seemed surprised, like whatever he sensed in that tree was wrong, completely wrong.

"He's up there..." Kuwabara paused. "It's Hiei...." He turned to Yusuke and his face suddenly tightened. "What the hell happened while I was sleeping, Uremeshi?"

Yusuke kept his face blank. "That's what I'd like to find out." he said and turning to the tree, he gazed up into the shadows held there between the leaves and the sunlight and then he began to climb.

_...to be continued..._


	26. Chapter 26

It wasn't merely Kurama and his classmate who went to the hospital that day.

The entire play-cast had come as well.

Kurama hadn't known. He had, in fact, actually forgotten all about the play. By the time they got to the hospital, his head felt like it was about to split in two, right in front of everyone.

"Minamino!" everyone greeted and made room for him in the already crowded hospital room.

He had actually reapplied the nectar before leaving school. The stench of it made it hard to breath.

"We're so glad you're OK, Higashii." Someone was saying.

"Yeah! Without you, our Minamino would have been..." Someone burst into tears and there was the sound of laughter....and agreement.

Tohru hadn't said anything yet.

At least, Kurama didn't think he did.

It was hard to concentrate.

He had been worried someone would feel his tail, but it seemed the extra nectar had worked. No one seemed to notice. He reached up and began to rub his head, closed his eyes.

"Minamino?"

He knew that voice.

He opened his eyes and Tohru was sitting up in bed, looking up at him. His eyes were wide, but guarded.

"Are you alright?" Someone asked and Kurama saw it was the classmate who had accompanied him.

Kurama nodded and started to smile and speak when Tohru suddenly said, "Hey, everyone. Can I talk with Minamino alone?"

There were a few voices of hesitation, and Kurama himself was almost one to stop them from going. He didn't want to be alone with Tohru. Not right now.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Minamino." Students were saying. "Tohru, we'll see you..."

"Soon." Tohru said and Kurama got a good enough look at him to realize that he was releaved they were going. He had spoken tightly, embarassed. He wasn't used to the attention.

When the last student exited, Tohru sighed.

"Glad that's over with." he said, staring out the window.

Kurama sat down heavily on a near-by chair.

"Minamino?" Tohru said. "Hey-are you alright?"

Kurama paused and pulled his hands away from his head. He smiled. "I'm not feeling like myself." he said and laughed at his own joke. He needed to leave. Now.

"You look worst than I feel." Tohru said seriously.

Kurama shook his head and without looking at him, said to Tohru. "Even so. You're the one who..." he shook his head and finally looked up. Perhaps he didn't feel right, perhaps there was so much on his mind, but Kurama knew he had to do one more thing before he left here today. He smiled at the other boy. "Thank you." he said.

Tohru shrugged. "Yeah. Whatever." he answered and lay back down. "You should get going." he said, suprising Kurama who had expected a conversation, words, something. He suddenly realized that Tohru had made up having to talk to Kurama to get rid of their classmates. "You really look pale." he said. "Did you do something dumb after I went through all that trouble of rescueing you?"

"I look pale?" Kurama said.

"And different."

It was a startling statement, but Tohru was calm enough. Whatever he saw, it wasn't a fox. Kurama paused. The other boy was laying down in bed and his eyes were on Kurama. They were heavy lidded eyes, tired eyes. Kurama hadn't noticed before.

"How so?" he asked, although he knew he should just leave. He had walked closer to the bed. Tohru was gazing up at him through his large eyes. His lips were parted slightly as he breathed.

There was a shrug in Tohru's voice as he replied, "Don't know." Tohru said. Kurama walked away then, saying good-bye and squeezing the other boy's hand before he turned and although he did linger in the doorway, he did leave then.

"Different..." Tohru repeated as his eyes fluttered asleep, "I don't know how...but..."

Kurama heard his words, paused and turned around in the hallway, but Tohru was already asleep.

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note: **SORRY! This is SOOOO short! Don't worry-will be updating tomorrow night! We'll see just what happened to Hiei and what about a little meeting of the minds of Shuiichi Minamino and Youko Kurama? Next Time!!! (well...actually...tomorrow...) Ja, ne and (of course) Thank you so very very very very very very very very very very very very....VERY much for your reviews (thank you)!!!! :)_

_**Author's Note (part deux):** And about ch. 22....I think I hit something (or my computer was hungry and ate half the chapter) and the middle of chapter 22 was no more....it's fixed now....sorry if that was kinda weird or confusing - _


	27. Chapter 27

By the time Kurama arrived back at Yusuke's he had avoided two small disasters.

That doesn't include the one that was waiting for him.

One.

After leaving Tohru, Kurama had quickly ducked into a restroom and scrubbed furiously at his skin. The scent of the nectar was making his sight swim. He had just removed the last bit and was closing his eyes, his shoulders slumped in relief when the door to the restroom opened.

"Minamino?" a surprised voice said.

Kurama looked up and his two new ears perked in surprise.

It was the classmate who had accompanied him there.

He took one look at Kurama and the ears on his head, the tail at his back, and his jaw dropped.

For a moment, Kurama was at a loss of words.

He had no idea what to say.

Was there anything he could say?

Then, at the last moment, when it looked like the classmate was about to bolt or panic, yell or the like, Kurama smiled.

It was an open, friendly smile, his slyest one. "What do you think?" Kurama said.

"About what?" the classmate said, eyes clouding in confusion.

Kurama smiled wide. It was the perfect explanation. "About my new costume." he said.

Two.

It was surprisingly hard to convince his classmate. It was even more hard to avoid the hand that kept reaching for his ears, but in the end, he had done it.

Unfortunately, there was more in store.

He had just left the hospital. His mind was on one hand releaved, on one hand anxious-Yusuke hadn't contacted him about whether he had found Hiei and it was getting late. Night was coming and the wind, already chill was getting cold.

Kurama was sprinting between the buildings-having wiped off his disguise, and being walked in on, he thought it best to avoid any more humans. That's when his cell rang.

He thought it was Yusuke, but he was wrong.

"Shuiichi?" his mother said.

Kurama stumbled.

"Ka-san?" he replied.

In the end, he promised he would stop by that night. The excuse he had used-that Yusuke was sick and his mother wasn't around to watch him, had worked, but he sensed something talking to his mother then that he had never sensed before.

She sounded reserved, as though she didn't quite believe everything Kurama said...

That had never happened before.

"Ka-san?" Kurama had said before he hung up.

"Yes, Shuiichi?"

"I...I..." Kurama began and for the second time in a day, he couldn't think of what to say. He wasn't even sure what he meant to say, it only seemed important that he say it.

His mother laughed softly on the other end of the line and it seemed that whatever was on her mind vanished. "I'll see you tonight, Shuiichi." she said in her warm voice.

Then, Kurama arrived at Yusuke's.

Don't they say that good things come in threes?

Perhaps it's the same for bad things.

Yusuke was waiting for Kurama when he arrived.

"Yusuke?" Kurama said, looking at the Spirit Detective as he stood, tense and frowning near the doorway.

"Hiei's here, Kurama." Yusuke said. There it was again-a new note in his voice that the detective hadn't used with him before-that distant sound of suspicion.

"Hiei?" Kurama said and something in his chest tightened. Something was wrong. Kurama hadn't sensed Hiei. He reached out now and realized it was there, but so soft, so very soft, delicate and _fragile_.

Kurama started forward, brushing past a surprised Yusuke who suddenly put an arm out, effectively blocking Kurama.

"We need to talk." Yusuke said, but after a moment, Yusuke sighed. "Fine. After you see him. But, we need to talk, Kurama." Yusuke said.

"Very well." Kurama said and turned away from the detective. The day before the sight of Kurama as he was now with blooms of fox ears and tails, Yusuke had been laughing, now the sight of Kurama seemed only to anger the detective and Kurama, knowing he had done no wrong, couldn't help but feel suddenly guilty.

_...to be continued..._


	28. Chapter 28

Hiei was laying in Yusuke's bed.

It was night now.The street lights were on outside the only window in the room.

Kurama saw Hiei's chest beneath the blankets pulled to his chin, rise and fall. The breathing was quiet, shallow-Hiei wasn't merely sleeping. He was unconscious-recovering...

"Hiei..." Kurama said.

Kurama saw it again, the spell, growing before the eyes of his memory.

Kurama started forward.

The room was dark. Yusuke had left the lights out and Kurama hadn't bothered to turn them on. He could see well enough.

The Jaganshii slept in one of Yusuke's shirts. It was too big for him. The Jaganshii slept, but his jagan was awake and it was staring straight at Kurama.

"Hiei..." Kurama whispered and sat down on the bed beside Hiei.

Hiei's arms were wrapped in bandages. Kurama could see where the shirt peeked up that bandaged wrapped the fire demon's torso as well.

So the spell had given Kurama ears and a tail...that same spell had torn apart Hiei...

Kurama bowed his head.

He looked down at Hiei.

He reached out and brushed his hand against the Jaganshii's cheek. "What have you done, Hiei?" he whispered when suddenly the demon sighed and turned towards that touch. Kurama pulled away.

The last thing on his mind had been that Hiei may be this badly injured. This was no side-effect of a spell. He looked at the broken form on the bed and suddenly leaned forward. His lips brushed against Hiei's and again Hiei sighed and turned into that touch.

Kurama pulled away. He was glad the Jaganshii was alright.

And then, he thought of Tohru, laying in his hospital bed....

"Ku...Kurama..." Hiei whispered.

Kurama paused. He had been getting up to leave.

"Kurama..." Hiei repeated.

Kurama stood, frozen.

Outside, a streetlight suddenly turned off. Kurama could the wind pushing through the streets. It was a high sound, strained, sad.

He took a step forward and knelt before the sleeping demon.

Hiei was dreaming. His face moved with some emotion and Kurama leaned forward.

He had meant just to sit closer, be nearer, but something caught his eye.

Blood.

On Hiei's belly, as he had turned towards Kurama, had revealed a stain both terrible and fresh.

"Hiei..." Kurama whispered and the voice wasn't his own.

It was deeper than his own.

It was older.

It was, as Tohru had said, "different".

Kurama couldn't have known, but in that moment as he bent and began to lick Hiei's wound, his eyes turned from their familiar green to gold. A gold both cold and hungry.

_...to be continued..._

**_Author's Note:_** **Oooohhh**_! The plot thickens! What's in store for our heroes? What about Tohru (and there IS something in store for Tohru). Coming soon! (that means probably by Friday-sorry!!!! Lots of projects due this week). Oh! And you guys are so awesome-I really mean that! Thank you for all your sweet reviews!! You guys actually give me ideas for what to write when you speculate on what's next-that's pretty cool. :) Ja!_


	29. Chapter 29

Hiei woke up slowly.

He saw the night first, sitting like a bystander outside the window.

He realized that he was in a room he vaguely recognized as that belonging to the Spirit Detective.

Then he saw Kurama.

He felt Kurama.

For a moment, he didn't move as he felt the fox gently licking at his skin, laping at the injury on the side of his stomach. His breath caught. What was the fox doing? Why was Hiei allowing it...?

"Ku...kurama..." he whispered and the fox suddenly stilled and looked up at him.

Kurama gazed at the Jaganshi with golden eyes.

Hiei scowled at him and Kurama hesitated.

Then Hiei noticed Kurama's ears. They peaked up from the top of his head, tapering in red points. Then he saw his tail. Hiei felt his eyes widen.

Kurama saw that. He laughed.

It was a strange laugh; dark, unfamiliar.

Hiei tried to pull away from the sound, from Kurama who was watching him with those two strange eyes, and gasped. He had forgotten about his injuries, but his injuries hadn't forgotten him. They burned with his movement. His jagan felt painfully hot on his forehead. His eyes closed and for a moment, consciousness swam out of his grasp.

When he came to, Kurama was leaning close, his face too near to Hiei's own.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hiei snapped. "Get off of me."

Kurama smiled a sharp smile. "No." he said.

"Kurama!" Hiei began, but was cut off as the fox laughed again, that same unsettling laugh and then he leaned forward and pressed his mouth against Hiei's.

Hiei fought against that mouth, trying to pull away, but Kurama's hand was in his hair, keeping him still, and his body pressed against his own. Soon, so soon Hiei didn't understand, he stopped struggling. He didn't know why. He could lie and say it was the pain that Kurama pressing against his injuries caused as Hiei struggled. He could say that he was too damned tired. But that wasn't it...he would fight if that was all it was...but...

This felt familiar and at the same time, like a dream...

Hiei gasped as Kurama's hands brushed against the wound on his side and Kurama suddenly pulled away.

Hiei reached for him without realizing it and he came back to himself with a hand pulling at Kurama's hair.

"Hiei...?" Kurama said and Hiei paused at the sound. That wasn't the same voice as the laugh. This voice sounded too human. Hiei studied the face staring down at him. That face looked too frightened.

"Hn..." Hiei said vaguely.

"What the hell...?" a third voice said then.

Hiei turned towards the doorway, Kurama as well.

Yusuke stood there.

He stared at the two demons-Kurama straddling Hiei, blood on Kurama's face, Kurama's green eyes, too wide.

What the hell...?

"Kurama...?" Yusuke began and started forward, but he got no reply.

Kurama pulled away from Hiei then and Hiei started as the severing of that contact.

Kurama, face down, hand brushing at the blood on his face, pushed pass Yusuke and as the dumbfounded detective stared after him, disappeared. The sound of the front door closing behind him came up the hall like an afterthought.

Yusuke turned to the Jaganshi. "Hiei?" he said.

The fire-demon stared back at him and said nothing.

He had no idea what that was about, or why his heart pounded...

He kept his face blank and the detective turned and hurried after Kurama.

When he was alone, Hiei reached up and touched his mouth.

_...to be continued..._


	30. Chapter 30

When Kurama left Yusuke's, he ran aimlessly, but somehow, he ended up at home, nonetheless.

He stood outside the house, his shadow short beneath the street-lights.

The streets were empty.

He was alone in that night.

What had happened?

The night wind blew soft. It was cold, but Kurama didn't feel it and when the first snow began to fall, Kurama didn't notice.

He hadn't meant to...

He touched his mouth. The blood was gone. He had wiped at his face until it was clean again, but he could still taste Hiei in his mouth.

What had happened?

He only meant to see that the fire demon was alright... 

He had only meant to be near him when he couldn't see the look in Kurama's eyes...

But instead, Kurama had kissed him...what a lie...it was more than that...

And Hiei had let him...

The lights were on in his home. He noted they were also on even in his room. In the dark of the night and his confused thoughts, it was like gazing at a lighthouse near an ocean.

He paused and saw his mother through a window. She was sitting at the kitchen table and set in front of her were two cups for tea just starting to cool.

_"I'll see you tonight, Shuiichi." _she had said.

"Mother..." Kurama whispered.

His eyes turned downward unconsciously, and he was looking at his shadow. A human shadow with fox ears and a tail.

After all that Kurama had done to be human, wasn't this the truth?

"_What if it isn't temporary?" _That's what Yusuke had said.

"_Different_..." _Tohru had repeated as his eyes fluttered asleep, _"_I don't know how...but..."_

_"Perhaps because you, too, know your past well enough and understand that you can never be more than you are."_

_"What am I, Hiei?"_

_The answer was simple. "A thief. A demon." he paused. "A killer." _

_Kurama said nothing, his eyes were wide now, his mouth slightly opened._

_"Hn. Where is your logic now?"_

Kurama hung his head. Where _was _his logic? That was a good question. Everything felt so far from his control now.

When he was in the room with Hiei, it felt like he suddenly wasn't himself...like something else had compelled him to press his body, his mouth to that of the Jaganshii...and hadn't he felt then, a surge of power when Hiei had struggled beneath him. The thought made him feel ashamed now...It wasn't like Shuiichi to feel such things...but it was like the Youko...

But what did that mean?

Lately, everything was so far out of his hands...

It was Yusuke, in the end that had saved his mother any grief from her son dying the same day she was granted new life through the Mirror.

It was Hiei who almost died because Kurama almost couldn't do what was necessary to save him.

It was Tohru in the hospital..

It was his mother waiting for a son that wasn't really even her own. It was a cup of tea she had made for him that was cooling now. It was the look on his mother's face, worried and sad...

Kurama had done all of this...

Despite his apperance, Kurama was human then as the events of the last months finally took their toll. It was then that Yusuke found him and whatever he had to say, whatever doubts and suspicions on his mind, he didn't say anything then.

He waited, not saying a word, as Kurama, his face hidden behind his hands, cried in a dark and empty night.

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note:** Hi again! Hey that was actually kinda sad...I didn't mean to write it that way at first, but...Well! There is still more to come and not all of it is happy. But don't worry! Some of it is! Maybe :) SO! Don't worry! Will update more this weekend! Maybe a little tomorrow and a little Sunday. Yeah! Almost Holloween! We're having a small party back home...but it's at 11 in the morning...strange, I know :) Anyhoo...sorry for rambling :) Hope you'll keep reading! Thank you for your reviews, as always, I truly appreciate them all (I really, really do :)! :) :D 3_


	31. Chapter 31

"Kurama..." Yusuke said softly.

Kurama barely heard him.

The sound of the wind, the sound of the city, the sounds of his mother dreaming in her sleep-those were loud things, Yusuke was a whisper in the corner of his eye.

"Hey..." Yusuke said and touched Kurama's shoulder.

Kurama sighed.

The tears had ended some time ago and Kurama was left feeling absolutely...still.

He looked up.

The lights were out in his house. His mother had finally given up, gone to bed. Two full cups of cold tea sat in the kitchen sink.

"I'm sorry, Yusuke." Kurama said. Yusuke didn't answer at first. Kurama turned to look back at him and smiled. "I can't imagine what you must be thinking right now, Yusuke." he said."After all of this..."

For a moment it seemed Yusuke was about to tell him exactly what it was that he was thinking, but in the end, he didn't. "Thinking? Me? What a waste of time." he said and releasing Kurama, he turned and started to walk away. "Let's go home." he said over his shoulder.

Kurama followed.

Yusuke walked with his hands in his pockets. The air was cold. Kurama imagined without a coat, the human must be cold, but he didn't show it.

Kurama glanced over his shoulder and watched as his house grew more and more distant. The moon was out in the clear sky. He wondered if the moon looked as bright to Yusuke as it did to him.

"Hey, Kurama?" Yusuke said without turning. "You know, if I was thinking and all, what I would be wondering?"

"Yes?" Kurama asked quietly.

Yusuke stopped. They had come to a railroad track crossing. A train was coming and the guard was down, the light was flashing.

"A lot of things. That's what." Yusuke paused. The train was approaching. "One-what it was that you and Hiei were doing. I don't buy that you don't know. You aren't the kind to be clueless, Kurama. Maybe you don't know much, but I suspect you know something...."

"Yusuke..."

Yusuke cut him off. The train was blaring. Kurama was glad Yusuke didn't turn towards him, he had started at the sound of the whistle. His nerves were truly strained, it would seem. "I'd also be wondering about Hiei-if he'll be alright, although I couldn't imagine anything could kill that short bastard." Yusuke laughed.

Kurama waited. The detective was speaking quickly. He was laying the cards on the metaphorical table and waiting for Kurama to show his own. "And lastly..." The train was about to pass. The horn was blaring, the lights flashing, the ground shaking ever so slightly. "I'd want to know what is going on with you. And why your eyes keep turning gold..." he paused, like the mention of such eyes was a bad taste, "And what the hell was that with Hiei..." Yusuke had turned to him and Kurama saw he was blushing and frowning.

"I..." Kurama began and the train passed them. "don't know..." Kurama said, but the answer was lost to the suddenly disturbed night.

It was impossible that Yusuke had heard him, but nonetheless, it would seem that Yusuke knew exactly what Kurama had said. His frowned deepened and he stepped towards Kurama. In an instant, he had grabbed Kurama by the front of his shirt and pulled him up. "Don't give me that crap!" He yelled.

Kurama's eyes widened and slowly, as the train continued, then passed, they narrowed.

"What do you mean, detective?" he said suddenly in a strange, soft voice. His eyes closed and his mouth stretched into a smile.

Yusuke scowled, but he wasn't surprised that when those eyes opened again, they were gold.

"Besides, if I did know, would you want the answer?"

_...to be continued..._


	32. Chapter 32

Kurama barely noticed the next day passing.

He sat quiet in his seat.

His head down, red hair covering his eyes and the sleepless look to his face.

He hadn't gone home with Yusuke last night.

"_Besides, if I did know_," wasn't that what Kurama had said? "_Would you want the answer_?"

He had left then, abruptly, hardly knowing why he had said that, or where the words had come from. Yusuke didn't call after him or come after him. He had let him go.

His eyes, just before Kurama had turned away, they were worried, yes, there was that concern the detective always had for his friends, but along with it was fear.

Fear.

Kurama had slept on the roof of a temple. His body barely felt the cold.

He thought of Hiei and he wasn't sure whether the thought, in the end, convinced him not to return to Yusuke's, perhaps, in a way, the same thought prevented him from returning to his home with his 'ka-san.

He couldn't face HIei right now.

He could only wonder what the Jaganshi was thinking. If Hiei remembered anything from before....

No. Kurama put an end to that thought.

There was no use wondering it. Hiei didn't remember, what Kurama had seen in Hiei's eyes and felt in his touch, that was the phantoms of recollections in his mind. To Hiei it must have seemed like a dream, something intangable and just out of reach of understanding as Kurama had kissed him.

If Kurama was right, that is, or else, he simply felt nothing at all.

Kurama reached up and touched his ears and his hand trailed to his eyes.

How long would it be?

A week?

Two?

Would he remain like this?

Did it, in the end, matter?

Kurama stared up at the stars. He saw snow falling. The answer, of course, was yes. It did matter. How could it not? He couldn't return home like this...

More so...

Although he hated to admit it...

Although he raked his mind for an explanation...

Something was happening to him, something linear that was leading to an end, not returning to Shuiichi Minamino...

Perhaps Kurama's thinking was slightly off...perhaps it wasn't linear at all, this subtle change in him...

_"I'd want to know what is going on with you. And why your eyes keep turning gold..."_

It wasn't that Kurama hadn't noticed he had gold in his eyes. He knew that the first night after he and Hiei had been blasted by that mysterious spell. But Yusuke didn't seem to be talking about the specks of gold Kurama had seen. He seemed to be talking as if his eyes were completely gold...and if that were true...

"Minamino? _Minamino_?"

Kurama started out of his thoughts.

He looked up. A girl was standing there, smiling at him.

"Yes?" Kurama said.

"Are you coming today?"

"Coming?" Kurama blinked and tried to repress the wince as his head pounded. He had applied the nectar particularly heavy that morning.

"To practice...For the play?"

"Oh, yes...of course." Kurama said as the girl's smile brightening. "I'll be there shortly."

"Alright!" the girl said and turned, but suddenly stopped. "Oh!" She cried turning back to Kurama. Her smile was impossibly broader.

"Yes?" Kurama said uncertainly.

"Didn't you hear? You haven't have you? I can tell..." She laughed.

"Hear what?"

The girl laughed again and clapped her hands. "He's back! Tohru's back! We'll be a full cast today! Isn't that wonderful?" She laughed again and waved as she turned and hurried away.

Kurama watched her go.

"Tohru.." he said, smiled, then shook his head bitterly.

_...to be continued..._


	33. Chapter 33

"So how's the shrimp, Uremeshi?" Kuwabara asked.

Both he and Yusuke sat on the roof of their school. It was lunch.

"He's fine, I guess." Yusuke answered, but he wasn't so sure. He didn't complain or anything, but he remained at the spirit detective's apartment. That was enough to prove he was hurting.

"Did you get it out of Kurama what the heck happened?"

Yusuke frowned. "No. I didn't." he said.

"You know, come to think about it, I haven't seen Kurama for a long time. Maybe I'll come by after school..."

"Don't bother."

"What? Are you saying I'm not welcome or something? You punk...!"

"Shut-up, Kuwabara. That's not what I'm saying." Yusuke said and sighed.

"Hey, what's wrong, Uremeshi?"

Yusuke crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

What was wrong?

Kurama. That's what was wrong.

And in his own way, Hiei.

What the hell was going on with those two?

But between the two, it was Kurama who got beneath his skin and made him have goose-bumps on the inside of his flesh. _Yuck_, thought Yusuke, _bad mental image_.

But...

Those eyes...

Those two golden eyes in his friend's face.

Those were not Kurama's eyes....and that bothered him...

And the worst part, the part that for some reason angered Yusuke, was that Kurama seemed oblivious to it, like there was nothing wrong...

Yusuke paused.

Was there nothing wrong?

Yusuke thought back to last night and Kurama, face close, eyes turned suddenly gold, grinning like a true fox, sharp grin and all...On second thought, perhaps Yusuke wasn't just being paranoid....

"Uh...Uremeshi?" Kuwabara said.

"What?" Yusuke snapped.

"You sure you're OK? You were staring into space for like five minutes, man."

"It's called thinking, you dumb-ass."

Kuwabara laughed, "He he...Looked like it was pretty difficult for you, Uremeshi."

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke roared and wacked the red haired teen straight on the jaw.

Then, as Kuwabara withered in agony on the floor at his feet, an idea occurred to Yusuke. He smiled and crouched so he was eye-level to his friend.

"Hey, Kuwabara." he said, "You said you wanted to see Kurama, right?"

"Uh...(ouch)...yeah...I guess. Why?"

Yusuke's smile broadened. The gears in his head were working. Sure, they hadn't been oiled in a while, but once set, they were out to work, dang it. "I have an idea." Yusuke said.

He'd get to the bottom of this...whatever it was with Kurama and Hiei...

He was, after all, a detective.

_...to be continued..._


	34. Chapter 34

Hiei sat up.

A bolt of pain flashed from the tips of his fingers to the center of his chest and he doubled over, breathing hard on Yusuke's bed.

"Damn it." he said.

His jagan was open even before he removed the ward.

He was alone.

It hadn't been that long since he had woken. He stared up at the roof of the Spirit Detective's apartment and scowled at it. It didn't take any offense.

Hiei didn't want to be there anymore.

He wanted to be moving through the city.

He wanted....

He wanted to see the damned fox.

He paused. "Kurama..." he said without meaning to. What had happened to him? The fox looked...well...like a fox, but his eyes...those were all demon.

What had happened?

Slowly, as Hiei resolutely continued to try to stand, he realized what it was, was it must have been that could have such an effect..."The spell..." he whispered.

He remembered it.

He had summoned it. It swirled in the air above his head and just before everything went to hell, he had looked at it for no more than a second and seen a shape.

A dragon. A black dragon.

Then all had gone dark.

He couldn't say if it had healed his jagan. Not for certain, although the eye seemed active enough on his forehead as it surveyed the apartment.

Hiei stood.

He gasped and sat down again.

And then the fox had kissed him...

Kurama had kissed him.

"Damn fox..." Hiei whispered, but there was no venom in the words.

That's not how he meant to say it.

Hiei paused.

What was wrong with him?

Thinking about last night, Kurama licking his wounds, Kurama on top of him, the feel of that body so near his own, that should not make him feel as he felt...

It was a strange emotion. One Hiei couldn't remember having felt before...

_Homesick_.

That's as close as he could describe that feeling...

He hated that feeling.

His eyes rounded wide. He was remembering Kurama kissing him when suddenly the image of Kurama standing over the human in the hospital came into his mind. "Hn." he snarled at his thoughts and stood. It hurt. A lot. However, even so, Hiei forced himself to remain upright, then dragged himself to the window in the room and opened it.

He didn't close it behind him.

He had other matters on his mind.

Things like foxes.

Behind him, the blinds made soft sounds, moving in the wind.

_...to be continued..._


	35. Chapter 35

By the time Kurama arrived at play practice, they had already started.

It had taken time to remove the last of the nectar.

He didn't see Tohru...perhaps the girl had been wrong?

"Minamino!" a girl cried.

Kurama started and then, he was surrounded by five fan-girls, ambush style.

"Kawaii!!!" They cried in unison, clasping their hands to their chests. "Those ears and that tail! They look so real!"

Kurama said, "Thank you."

He looked across the room then and saw the classmate who had taken him to the hospital. He was frowning at him. And next to him, staring at him from across the room, his head bandaged, his eyes brown, his lips soft, was Tohru.

Kurama raised his hand to him, but before Tohru could respond, Kurama was pulled away.

"Let's start on page 42." Yuki, the director said.

"Alright." Kurama said and flipped opened the book he had been carrying.

Everyone took their place.

Everyone went still.

Kurama stood, a true youko playing a youko in a play and read his lines while everyone looked on.

"A disguise." Kurama said. "That is the trick. I'll cover your eyes with the cloth on my body. I'll be a king one moment, a begger the next, a ronin with a sword at your throat, or a woman with your heart in my hand. You'll never recognize me. Until it is too late." Kurama paused.

"Minamino..." Yuki the director hissed. "Go on, that sounds great, don't break the moment."

"I'll sneak in at night, the times when no one sees, and the moon is out and ringed. Then, the treasures are not watched, their owners are dreaming of their own treasures, the only treasures I cannot steal. I'll be in and out and no one will see me. No one will notice I was there.....how crafty is this youko!" Kurama's voice softened as he spoke. It hadn't been that long since the last practice. How was it now, that these words, delivered already many times before, sounded now so different?

"But, Youko! There are demons who guard that treasure!"

"Who fears demons?" Kurama said, his voice still strangely soft. The director was beginning to interupt, "Who fears demons?" Kurama repeated, louder this time and the director paused, suprised at the sudden change in his tone. "Who fears demons? Not I. What have I to fear, for I myself am a demon."

Kurama broke off.

No one noticed the troubled tremor to his voice. No one noticed the sudden tightening of his lips or the way his eyes narrowed.

No one, save a boy sitting across the room, a boy with brown eyes that were so large, and a bandage wrapped around his head.

The same is true when Kurama left the practice.

Quietly, so no one saw, Tohru slipped from his seat and followed after Kurama.

_...to be continued..._


	36. Chapter 36

Kurama made it around the corner of the building, then he put his back to that building and sank to the ground.

What was wrong with him?

Why had those words bothered him this badly? 

It was just a high-school play, a badly written one at that and yet, Kurama took it to heart as though he was voicing his own confession.

It was getting late.

The sky was late colors, bruised colors.

Birds, the few that hadn't left to escape the encrouching winter, flew in formation across the sky.

Perhaps he should speak to Yusuke, if the detective would hear him...

He should apologize to Hiei....

He should, at least, see Hiei again...

"Minamino?" a voice said.

Kurama blinked slowly, then looked up.

"Tohru?" he said.

Tohru didn't say anything and the expression on his face (the same one he always had, the one that belonged to Tohru as much as he belonged to it) didn't change. He crouched down next to Kurama so their eyes, their faces were even, then he leaned forward and his lips touched Kurama's.

For a moment, Kurama sighed into that kiss, then as Tohru whispered, "Minamino....", he suddenly pulled away. Clarification-he pulled away too fast. So fast that his head cracked against the building.

"Watch out, Minamino. You're next for the hospital at this rate." Tohru joked with a perfectly serious face as Kurama rubbed the back of his head.

Kurama didn't say anything.

He shouldn't have kissed Tohru.

Again.

"Minamino, you alright?" Tohru suddenly asked.

Kurama shook his head. "Isn't that what I should be asking you?"

Tohru shrugged. "I got to miss school." he said as if that forgave and explained everything.

Kurama almost smiled, but in the end, it turned into another sigh.

"You still look pale. You should go get a second opinion from another doctor, you know? I think you look even more pale than you did when I saw you in the hospital last." He paused and his eyes turned in the direction from which he had come. "I wonder if they're wondering where you went?"

Kurama looked away. "I'll return soon. I...just needed to get away for a moment."

Tohru shrugged and sat down next to Kurama.

They sat in silence for a moment.

"Minamino?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know there really isn't a lot to do in a hosiptal? I had a lot of time to think when I was laying around."

"Think?" Kurama said.

"Yeah."

"I see."

"Do you?" Tohru said and Kurama saw him looking at him through the corner of his eye. "Do you really see what I'm saying?"

"Tohru..."

Tohru looked away. He was blushing and although he looked angry, Kurama realized he was suddenly embarassed. "Minamino...I...I like you." he said and he moved so he was looking straight at Kurama's eyes. "I really do like you. A lot. All that means right now is that its the truth. Whatever else it means I still haven't gotten around to thinking about." Tohru suddenly laughed.

Kurama felt his eyes widen.

"Tohru..." he began, but was cut off. Perhaps Tohru didn't want to hear the words that Kurama was about to say. He leaned in and touched Kurama's jaw, his cheek, pressed his body against his classmate's until he was pinned against the wall. This time the kiss was more than it had ever been before. Tohru's lips were warm against Kurama's mouth, and then, suddenly, Kurama felt the soft movement of an uncertain tongue against his lips.

Kurama gasped and Tohru pressed harder against his mouth until it opened.

"Minamino..." Tohru whispered and Kurmama replied against all his better judgement, "Tohru..."

Neither of them saw a figure land near-by.

No one saw how those red eyes narrowed dangerously.

That one moved too quickly to be noticed until he stood over the two and Kurama had seen him and pulled away enough from Tohru to gasp one word.

"_Hiei_...?"

...to be continued...

_**Author's Note**: Hi! Sorry about last week. I really thought I would have time for an update, but I just didn't! Sorry! :) But! Here were a whole lot of chapters, huh? This story is a chapter monster! Well! Hope you guys like! It's actually going somewhere, huh? :) (no, really! It is! :) Thank you again for all of your kind reviews! Five smileys and a kiss! :D :D :D :D :D (well, that last one is SUPPOSED to be lips...:)._

_**Author's Note #2**: Don't fear (if you were, if not, carry on). I really am going to finish this story. It has a ways to go, but not THAT that much (at least I don't think so). I actually am already planning the story to come after this one. Thanks for reading this far! :)_


	37. Chapter 37

The moment slowed and came to a standstill.

The grass bending in the wind never made it up again.

The birds hovered below the grey clouds overhead.

Hiei stood and Kurama stared up at him.

Kurama saw Tohru's eyes suddenly look up at him and saw the other boy starting to raise his head.

That's when the moment, all at once, began to move again.

"Minamino?" Tohru said. "Minamino, who is that?"

Kurama stared at Hiei and one memory came so clear in his mind that it seemed to overlap with this moment. He suddenly remembered the time, not that long ago, that he had pretended to betray Hiei. The look Hiei was giving him now...it was the same as then....

"Hiei." Kurama whispered.

Hiei didn't reply. He didn't move. He seemed suddenly a detached shadow if it weren't for his two red eyes, or the emotion burning within them.

Gently, Kurama pulled away from Tohru. The warmth of that human body slipped away. The winter wind seemed so impossibly cold.

Could it possibly be so cold?

"Hiei?" Kurama said again and when Hiei didn't reply, Kurama took another step near him. "Hiei?"

Kurama reached out to Hiei and his fingertips brushed against his face. Hiei turned to him at that moment and their eyes locked, but it was a short moment.

Perhaps it was Kurama's imagination that it happened at all.

For, in the next moment, Kurama was pushed aside and by the time he managed to roll to a stop, Hiei already had Tohru in his hand.

_...to be continued...._


	38. Chapter 38

"_Hiei_!" Kurama shouted.

Neither Hiei or Tohru seemed to notice.

Two impassive eyes stared into each other.

Two faces somehow so alike and so different regarded each other.

Tohru didn't seem afraid. There was a reason for that.

He didn't understand the situation.

That. And he didn't see that Hiei's left hand was reaching for his sword.

But Kurama did.

He didn't bother shouting.

There wasn't enough time.

Kurama didn't understand one thing...Hiei was after Tohru?

Why?

Scowling in Hiei's grip, Tohru suddenly saw his reflection in the steel of a descending sword.

For the first time, a look of fear spread across his face.

Hiei didn't smile.

"Hiei! Stop!"

Tohru turned wide eyes to Kurama. Hiei didn't.

"Minamino?" came Tohru's low voice, still stubborn to sound afraid, but nevertheless shaking so very finely.

Kurama stood behind Hiei and one hand touched the hand that held Hiei's sword.

"Hiei?" Kurama said softly.

Hiei didn't answer.

"What are you doing, Hiei?" Kurama said. He noted suddenly that the hand he was touching was cold. He didn't know that Hiei could get cold. He realized that the Jaganshi was shivering and he suddenly remembered his injuries. What made the fire demon shake so wasn't winter. It was pain.

So why was he here?

Why didn't he turn to Kurama when he called his name?

Why...

That's when Hiei finally did turn. He had thrown Tohru aside and in the next second, he had a hand around Kurama's throat.

Kurama gasped and Hiei pushed him to the ground.

"Kurama..." he whispered and the blade was cold against the fox's neck. His voice was thick, raw, as he demanded, "What did you do to me....Kurama?"

_...to be continued..._


	39. Chapter 39

Shiori Minamino pulled into the parking lot of Kurama's school.

She turned the engine off and paused.

Why had she come here?

Was it really necessary?

Surely, she tried to persude herself, Shuiichi was fine. Surely, he had simply forgotten to come home as he had promised.

But...

That wasn't like Shuiichi.

That wasn't at all like her son.

And that's why she was here.

She would meet him. She knew he had play practice.

She only wanted to see him.

She only wanted to see for herself that he was alright.

Perhaps he was just growing up. Perhaps he was facing those things you face at his age and didn't want to trouble his mother.

But...

That didn't feel right.

Shiori sighed.

She would find out, if she could, and she would do the only thing she could do.

She would offer her hand to her son and only hope that he would place his own in hers.

She got out of the car.

"The wind," she murmered to herself as the trees suddenly began to shake like fever and loose leaves blew past. "It's so cold."

_...to be continued..._


	40. Chapter 40

"Where are we going, Uremeshi?" Kuwabara asked.

They had been walking around the high school for almost half an hour now.

"To see Kurama." Yusuke answered, hands in his pocket and frown on his face.

Kuwabara suddenly paused.

"Hey, Uremeshi?" he said.

"Yeah?" Yusuke said over his shoulder.

"Ah...do you actually know where he is?"

That's when Yusuke paused and rubbing the back of his head, laughed. "Not actually." he said. "But he has to be somewhere....right? I mean...this is his school and he said something about practice once..."

"Ah...." Kuwabara began to say, but that's when there was a suddenly shout, clear as a bell cutting through the air.

"_Minamino_...!" the voice cried.

Kuwabara and Yusuke both turned to each other. "Minamino?" Kuwabara said, "Say, isn't that..."

"Kurama." Yusuke replied and they both began to run.

_...to be continued..._


	41. Chapter 41

_"What did you do to me...Kurama?"_

Kurama could feel the blade against his throat. He could feel the skin give and the first drop of blood stain the blade.

Hiei glared at him. His whole body was shaking now. His eyes burned into Kurama.

But even Kurama didn't understand the emotion there.

Not hate.

There was no hate in those red eyes of this fire demon.

"Hiei..." Kurama breathed and reached up to touch the demon's face.

Hiei jerked away from the touch. His eyes closed, his teeth clenched.

"What did you do?" Hiei demanded again.

"I..."

**_"What did you do?"_** Hiei's eyes were open now. The blade, which had been slackening, once again pressed against Kurama's throat. "You...I look at you...and I don't understand...I look at you and I want...I want..." Hiei visibly swollowed the words. The one hand that had been at Kurama's throat now brushed his lips and suddenly Kurama understood. "What is this in my mind....a memory that never was....?"

The flower.

That little flower...

How could Kurama ever have believed that Hiei remembering him would be a good thing?

Why...

Why in the end did it always turn out like this?

"Hiei..." Kurama whispered. "I'm sorry....I'm so sorry..."

When had Kurama's eyes gotten hot? When had the tears started to fall down his cheek? And for whom were those tears? For Hiei? For Kurama?

Kurama couldn't say.

He hated that he couldn't say.

So he said nothing.

He reached out and with his two hands, he touched Hiei's face.

This was better than words.

Hiei didn't fight him. The sword at his throat slipped. Kurama reached up and gentle as the fall of snow or the light of the moon, he kissed Hiei.

Hiei sighed against his mouth.

"Kurama..." Hiei said.

Perhaps the moment, strange as it was, dangerous as it had seemed, had been too nearly perfect. Perhaps Kurama was right. Perhaps things, in the end, truly did, always turn out for the worst. Or perhaps, it was the feel of the Jaganshi and the smell of blood that caused it.

Perhaps.

Wasn't it blood and a kiss that had begun everything?

Perhaps it was merely what was meant to happen at this moment.

Perhaps.

But whatever it was, Kurama had lifted the hand that had rested on Hiei's chest and his green eyes slipped closed.

Hiei moaned in his throat now and pressed closer to Kurama.

Then Kurama opened his eyes.

They peered over Hiei's shoulder at Tohru where he stood, looking as incredulous as Kurama had ever seen him. As hurt as he had ever seen him...And for once, the look didn't make his heart ache.

This human didn't make his heart ache.

Human.

Kurama wasn't human.

And when he opened his eyes, they were not human.

Tohru saw that.

His eyes widened.

He stepped back.

But that didn't matter.

Kurama's gold eyes settled on the Jaganshi holding him and Kurama smiled against that small mouth.

"Fool." Kurama whispered and the hand hovering over Hiei's chest suddenly moved.

Hiei cried out.

"Minamino!" Tohru shouted.

From the roof of the school, eight grey birds suddenly took flight into the grey, endless sky.

_...to be continued..._


	42. Chapter 42

Shiori Minamino had heard the shout, too and she, too came running.

Panting, she paused as she saw a figure standing just a small distance away. His back was to her, but she recognized him. "Shuichi..." she said, then louder, "Shuichi!"

He didn't move at first.

Overhead, birds, suddenly disturbed, had taken flight.

Overhead, snow, once again, began to fall.

"Shuichi!" Shiori called again. Her son didn't turn, but she saw something suddenly slump away from him. It took her a moment to recognize him. "Hiei?"

Shuichi still hadn't turned.

Hadn't he heard her call him?

Shiori touched her chest. Her heart had suddenly began to pound.

Something was wrong.

He was still in his costume from play practice. Shiori could see Shuichi's hair, billowing like a silk wave in the wind. Moving like a red flag.

Danger.

That's what her mind told her. Danger. That person standing there, her son...

Danger.

Red.

_Danger_.

"Shuichi...?" she said again and started forward.

It _was _Hiei. He lay, his eyes closed and his mouth so slightly opened. She saw her son's classmate. His name, she recalled was Higashii...Tohru Higashii...He had saved her son's life, pushed him from the path of a car. So why, now, was his face like that, turned pale and slowly turning to her?

Why was her son's hand stained red....?

"Shuichi?" she said again.

She stood right behind her son.

His hair brushed her cheek.

"Shuichi? What's happened...?" she began, but never finished.

You see, the red haired boy had finally turned, but when his eyes met his mother's, she didn't recognize him. Where had the green eyes, so filled with warmth gone? What were these hard, cold eyes, beautiful and frightening, golden as the sun? What was the smile on those lips?

She didn't know what it was.

She didn't know.

Her heart was pounding so hard now.

Then Kurama took a step towards her.

Shiori's eyes were too wide and tears suddenly filled them. "Shuichi..." she whispered.

Kurama laughed and it was that laugh that Shiori took with her into her troubled dreams as she fainted on a field of freshly fallen snow.

"My...son...."

_...to be continued..._


	43. Chapter 43

And where in all of this happening, were Yusuke and Kuwabara?

Weren't they the Reikai Tantei?

One of them at least, but you understand the point....

Yes? But you have to understand...the events just described happened in the blink of an eye.

In truth, only moments had passed since Yusuke and Kuwabara had heard Tohru's shout.

Nonetheless, how things had changed.

When they came upon the scene, Kurama was the only one standing.

The sky was overcast and he cast no shadow.

His red hair was bright against the grey of the world. His ears were erect on his head. His tail moved behind him like a copper steamer.

Tohru was on his knees, his eyes locked on Kurama. They were too wide.

Hiei lay at Kurama's feet and Yusuke saw a red stain beneath him.

And as for Kurama, he was reaching towards the figure at his feet. A figure Yusuke slowly recognized as that of his human mother.

"What the hell is going on?" Kuwabara said as Yusuke started forward, frown on his face, eyes narrowed.

Yusuke didn't bother replying.

He had no idea in hell what was happening.

He was really sick and tired of not knowing what the hell was happening.

He came to a stop.

"Kurama!" he called and the fox paused and looked up at him.

"Yusuke." he said in a voice that didn't belong to him, just as those strange golden eyes didn't seem to belong to him.

"What the hell are you doing, Kurama?" Yusuke demanded. He summoned his spirit energy. He felt on edge before this figure. His fingertips flushed with sudden power.

"Really." Kurama said, straightening out. "Have you not figured it out, Spirit Detective?" Kurama threw his head back and laughed.

The snow was falling fast now. It fell on his upturned face and melted against his pale skin.

"No. I haven't." Yusuke growled. "Care to explain?"

Kurama who was not Kurama crossed his arms. "Really? You sure you want to know, Yusuke? What a dangerous thing is knowledge."

"Cut the crap."

Kurama's face suddenly went blank at the Spirit Detective's outburst. "Very well." Kurama said and then he began to speak and as he did, Yusuke, slowly, as all the pieces suddenly fell into place, felt his heart fall.

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note: **First off: I AM **SOOOOOOOOOOOO **SORRY THAT THIS TOOK SO LONG TO GET UP! I truly was that caught up in school. I'm in college and at the end of this semester I was truly going insane. So I really apologize. To make matters worst, I got a total case of writer's block with this story. I kept thinking to myself, "what happens next" and although I could say out loud, "this and that and well...yeah...that should happen", it never came out right. Even when I wrote THIS the beginning was sooooo hard to write and I think it is awkward, but I like the ending parts of this post and don't worry...this story HAS a real ending! Eventually...it'll get there, I promise. There are a few chapters until then, but it will start to wind down soon... :)_

_**Author's 2nd Note: **Thank you guys for all of your reviews. I really mean that and I really apologize for not writing sooner. Hope these chapters are worth the wait. :)_

_**Author's 3rd and Final Note: **I should be able to write a lot more with vacation. Maybe one or two postings a week (I hope). Happy Holidays! :)_


	44. Chapter 44

"Do you know how Kurama came to be?" Kurama began.

Yusuke was crouching down now next to Shiori Minamino and, after a moment, he reached out towards Hiei. When Yusuke's hand touched his shoulder, the fire-demon moaned. Yusuke's eyes widened and he glared up at Kurama.

"What do you mean?" Kuwabara said, coming to stand next to Yusuke, "You mean how he was born and all...?"

"Born." Kurama said seriously, and Kuwabara swore his eye fell to the sleeping woman at his feet. "I wonder..." he said, then shook his head. His red hair hid his eyes. The clouds moved across the sun. "Shuiichi was born, Kurama was...merged."

"Merged? What the heck does that mean?"

"Spirit Detective? You're being very quiet." Kurama said. "You know what I am talking about, don't you? Kurama told you the story, did he not?

"Yeah. He did." Yusuke admitted.

"What? You knew?" Kuwabara growled. "Why didn't you ever tell me about it?"

"You never asked." Yusuke deadpanned, then turned back to Kurama, "So? You escaped death by merging with the unborn child within Shiori Minamino. The plan was to wait 10 years to regain your spirit energy and escape from the human world. Only, you never did."

"No. I didn't." Kurama touched his own chest. He suddenly turned from the two human teens and knelt. His fingers, strangely sharper than they usually were reached out and touched Hiei's hair. Yusuke slapped his hand away and Kurama laughed. "Never did I think what would become of me. Never would I have thought I would be discovered. I had resigned myself a lifetime within the human world. I resigned myself to a human life."

"But," Yusuke said, "You're not human."

Kurama suddenly looked at him and slowly, he smiled. "Human? Don't be a fool, detective. Kurama is many things, but he is not human. No matter how much Shuiichi might wish it."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Yusuke exclaimed. Kurama had fallen silent and his eyes had gone far away. "What the hell is going on? Tell me, Fox-Boy and do it fast, or..."

"Or you'll..." Kurama said and he leveled eyes with Yusuke. "What an impatient detective you are. You have all the clues, you simply do not put them all together." Kurama paused. "You glare at me. You fear me within your heart. But, this is all this demon's fault, for it was he who began everything."

"Hiei?"

"Yes." Kurama peered over Yusuke's shoulder. His eyes were locked on something there as he spoke. It was the intensity of that look, the weight of the glance that made Yusuke turn to follow those eyes. Yusuke was suddenly staring at Tohru. "His fault. He discovered me. He brought me back into a world to which I simply no longer belonged. He reminded me of so many things...

"The least of which was the demon within me.

"The least of which was a feeling that I hadn't felt in so very long....

"Alive.

"I felt alive with this demon. Alive in a way that simply wasn't human.

"And although Kurama loved that feeling...

"Shuiichi did not.

"Human.

"I am not human.

"I almost killed Hiei once before and it was because I am not human. What a burden for Shuiichi to bare.For there is a secret part of his heart that can only be human, no matter how much I influence him. It is a weak part of him, and it is such a small part, I never imagined it would have given me so many troubles." Kurama paused and sighed.

"But it was the addition of one variable. Perhaps it makes sense in its own way, as such things do and don't make sense. If the demon made Kurama feel alive, then it would take a human to bring to life that part of Shuiichi I thought so insignificant... ne, Tohru-kun?"

Tohru half-sat not a great distance away, as Kurama said his name, he looked up at him. His brown eyes were bright, although his face was a blank slate. His lips were trembling. What was he thinking? That was impossible to say. What was he feeling? That, too, was impossible to say.

Kurama was staring straight into those two eyes, the only living thing in that stony glance, as he said, "I hate them both."

Tohru didn't even blink, but his eyes caught a suddenly sheen.

"I hate them both." Kurama repeated, and his lips pulled back from his teeth.

Suddenly, Tohru's eyes were too bright and soon, as that stubborn facade crumbled, they were overflowing.

_...to be continued..._

_**Author's Note:** MERRY CHRISTMAS (and Happy Holidays!)!!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful, jolly day with lots of friends, family, food and presents! :) _

_**Author's Quick 2nd Note:** Yes, this is_ _short (I think this is the shortest update I''ve ever done:), but will be updating by Saturday with more! Thanks (as always :) for all your reviews! :)_


	45. Chapter 45

Kurama stared at Tohru.

His golden eyes were bright, but Tohru's were brighter still. They were all that showed any feeling, any emotion. Tohru's lips moved once, perhaps they mouthed "Minamino", perhaps they simply sighed.

"Hn." Kurama said. "Fool. Did you think something more the truth?" The words were meant to sting, but they were spoken softly. Soft as a touch. And as he spoke, Kurama's lips no long pulled back from his teeth. He only seemed somehow tired.

Tohru shook his head and looked away.

He said nothing.

"Are you sure you're really Kurama?" Kuwabara suddenly interrupted. "You're nothing like him. Kurama would never...uh...make a guy cry, you know."

"Ah," The Youko said, "Perhaps you know less about Kurama than you think you do."

"Actually...I just kind of met the guy." Kuwabara said, shrugging. "But he seemed nothing like you."

"Hn." Kurama said. "And you, Detective? What have you to say?" Kurama turned so he was once again looking upon Yusuke. The teen had removed his coat and had just finished wrapping it around Hiei's torso. His eyes were closed and his mouth was scowling. Below him, Hiei groaned in his sleep. "Detective?" Kurama said and raised an eyebrow.

"You...." Yusuke began.

"Yes? Detective?"

Yusuke turned to Kurama and his eyes were blazing. "You're nothing like him!" The smug expression left Kurama's face for a moment, as surprised, he watched the Spirit Detective jump to his feet. "Kurama would never say anything like that to hurt someone like you just did. Certainly not a friend!"

"Oh?" Kurama said, "But he isn't just a "friend"."

Yusuke blinked.

"Huh?" Kuwabara said in classic Kuwabara style, "So...what are you guys then?"

Kurama chuckled.

Yusuke waved a hand. "It doesn't matter! It's still the same!" He pointed at Kurama, "So Hiei's spell caused this. Kurama said that the spell had brought his demon aspects to the surface. I didn't think it had also brought the demon himself to the surface."

"Very good Detective. And?"

"And now...we make the real Kurama come back."

The Youko was grinning in amusement. "And how do you do that, Detective?"

Yusuke raised a finger that had suddenly began to glow.

Kurama began to laugh. He didn't get too much out.

Yusuke had, without hesitation, pointed and fired the first shot.

"_Spirit Gun_!"

_...to be continued..._


	46. Chapter 46

Kurama stared at a smoldering pile of brick.

Yusuke stood calmly and watched him.

The shot hadn't been aimed at Kurama, but at the top of a near-by building. In other words, it had been a warning shot.

"Bring Kurama back. **_Now_**." Yusuke said.

Kurama didn't answer right away. When he did, it was with the same distant stillness that seemed to fill this version of Kurama like water fills a glass. "You haven't been listening, have you, Detective? And here I believed that you fully understood the situation." Kurama frowned. "What is taking place within this singular body is not a mere switch between Youko Kurama and Shuiichi Minamino.

"It is a replacement; one which has no undoing.

"It is what should have taken place 5 years ago had Shuiichi not decided to remain for the sake of our "mother".

"A return.

"That is what is taking place.

"A final stroke that completes the circle." Kurama paused and took a step towards Yusuke, "Now. Do you understand at last," Kurama almost smirked, "Detective? If you try to shoot me with your little finger, you also harm your Kurama."

"Bastard." Yusuke growled.

Kurama said nothing.

"Wait..." someone suddenly said.

Yusuke turned towards the voice as did Kuwabara. Only slowly, reluctantly, did Youko turn his own head to gaze upon the one who spoke. It was none other than Tohru. "Wait." he repeated. He was standing now. The tears had stopped flowing, but the reddness in his eyes, the puffiness of his face seemed odd on such a set face. "I don't understand any of this." he said. "How can any of this be true?"

"How can it be a lie?" Kurama answered.

"I don't know."

"Human. Your part in this is played. Stay out of this."

"No." Tohru said. "I can't."

"Why not?" Youko said and his eyes shone with laughter. "Ah, I remember. Love? Do you truly love Shuiichi Minamino, boy?"

Tohru's scowl lost its edge.

"WHAT DID HE SAY???????? Love Kurama? But he's...that is they are.....!!!!" Kuwabara wailed and Yusuke stood there not knowing what to do but conk Kuwabara on his wailing noggin and that's just what he did.

Which left three players standing.

"Haven't you been listening?" Kurama continued, his voice a velvet, mocking whisper.

"I have."

Kurama laughed. "Are you truly that stubborn, then? Look at that fool bleeding at the Spirit Detective's feet if you wish to see the fruit of such stubborness. What is to say that any of this would have occurred if he had forgotten as he should have?"

Yusuke paused. That was strange. When he had said that, Kurama had almost sounded....regretful. Could it be that he hadn't wanted any of this to occur? Yusuke shook his head. So his detective skills weren't working that well for this case, but that just didn't make sense. Surely the Youko would want his...well...his _life back _for lack of better phrasing.

Right?

Instead of saying anything, Tohru just walked purposefully towards Kurama.

Kurama tracked him. His eyes watched his movements like a hunter; calculating, patient.

Yusuke tensed.

The snow suddenly stopped.

From an impossible distance came the sound of traffic.

Finally, Tohru paused before Kurama. He turned his head and peered up the distance between them. "What is it human?" Kurama said. "What is it you are going to do? Are you going to try to stop me? Save Shuiichi? Is that what you plan on, Tohru-kun?"

"Shut up." Tohru said. His face was hard. His eyes were deep. They caught the light of the late day like deep pools in a snow-covered field.

The Youko waited.

Yusuke watched.

Hiei moaned in a dream or a nightmare.

Then, Tohru reached out. His hand touched Kurama's face and although his hand must have been ice, Kurama didn't seem to feel it or indeed, notice the hand there. He remained impassive as the hand touched his hair and, finally, the two ears there. That hand traced the outline of those two ears, touched the down fur, then gently pulled. Tohru's eyes suddenly widened; so did Kurama's sharp smile. "Convinced n...?" he began to say but was cut off as Tohru's hand suddenly shifted, grabbing a hold of a lock of hair and pulling, hard, until Kurama's face was at his height.

"Just shut up. I'm not convinced of anything. You are you. That's just who you are. No one else...Nothing else..." Tohru whispered and leaned forward to kiss the Youko and the Youko did nothing except close his golden eyes and accept the kiss.

"Aw...guys....?" Yusuke was left saying, waving his hand, "Guys? Remember-I'm still here....ah...guys? _Guys_?!"

_....to be continued..._


	47. Chapter 47

It was Kurama who broke the kiss first.

He licked Tohru's lips with the tip of his tongue and Tohru shivered (while Yusuke turned white).

"And what were you hoping to accomplish with that, Tohru-kun?" Kurama whispered against Tohru's lips. Then, when Tohru didn't answer, Kurama's face lost some of its composure. He suddenly grabbed Tohru by the throat. "Do you think I am a fool?" he said and Tohru, grimacing, but not fighting, was lifted off his feet and thrown in the same motion. "Did you not hear what I said?" Those golden eyes watched Tohru land in a heap, "I hate you." His voice suddenly rose in pitch. Yusuke turned to him and began to aim, but he had no chance. Kurama was suddenly before him. He threw the detective to the ground. Kurama's eyes were too wide and for the second time, Yusuke saw it; regret, confusion....

"I hate..." Kurama hissed, his face too close to the detective's own.

"This world...

"It chokes me...

"It covets my freedom....

"I only wish to return home..."

The final word was strangled; choked.

"Kurama?" Yusuke said as the Youko suddenly closed his eyes and his brow furrowed like his was in pain. Kurama touched a hand to his own temple. "Kurama?"

Kurama turned to him, eyes wide, eyes glaring, eyes pleading, chest heaving. He raised a hand, balled a fist, but the blow never landed.

"Then...go..." Someone said.

Yusuke turned to that voice. "Hiei..." Kurama whispered, a sound too soft to call a sigh, to loud to call the wind.

The Jaganshi half-sat, clutching his chest. Blood dripped from his lips. His red eyes were guarded, his body shook constantly. "Go..." Hiei repeated. "If that is what you wish...why do you remain...here, you damned....Fox?"

Kurama stared at the fire-demon. "Hiei..." he said, then stood.

"Wait!" Yusuke said and reached for him.

But there was no use.

Kurama had stood for the briefest of moments and his head had bent, like a flower forced down in a heavy wind, and he had smiled. "True." he said to himself in the way someone admits a terrible wrong, a secret suddenly brought into the open, "That is something I myself have wondered...."

Then, he was gone.

"Kurama?" Yusuke said, and stood. Hiei's eyes closed and his jagan peered far. "Kurama!" Yusuke cried, but there was no answer.

The only remainder of the Youko were the foot prints he had left behind in the snow, an artifact only a human fleeing would leave behind.

_...to be continued..._


	48. Chapter 48

The next day, Yusuke sat next to Botan and on the glowing screen of the Spirit World Communicator was the leader of the Spirit World himself.

"I had no idea what was happening to him, Yusuke. I have already said that." Koenma repeated with a sigh.

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that. You know everything that goes on in Spirit World and Human World and you have no idea what was going on."

Botan looked uneasily between her boss and her ward.

Since summoning her and demanding an instant conference with Koenma, Yusuke had said nothing except that something had happened with Kurama and that Kurama was now gone, Hiei was asleep and deeply injured as was a human boy named Tohru Higashii. Kurama's human mother was there as well, but asleep due to a potion Yusuke had demanded out of Botan.

It was the middle of the night.

Through the window of the Spirit Detective's apartment, the moon was full and strangely bright.

"Why don't you tell me what happened instead of accussing me of knowing something I simply do not, Yusuke?" Koenma said and Yusuke huffed and glared at him.

"Fine."

So he told Koenma everything; the night he had raced into the construction yard to find Kurama unconcious and Hiei injured. The strange blast of youki (which Koenma admitted to knowing about due to reports from Human World, although he hadn't known Hiei the source), Kurama with fox ears and tail, Kurama with golden eyes, Kurama not himself....

He told him everything, concluding with the strange, anti-climatic way he had left after raging about his confinement to the human world when Hiei had given him the simple and perhaps slightly cold advice to simply leave if that's what he so wanted.

"So where is he?" Yusuke demanded, his fists slamming down on the desk.

Botan frowned more.

Koenma, on the other hand didn't seem affected. "I do not know, Yusuke. I will have my eyes in the Human and Spirit World try to find him, but it will take a few hours at the least, a few days at the most. If Hiei were awake he could tell you in an instant, I imagine, seeing that his jagan is useful in that way."

"But Hiei was the one who told him to go!"

"Everyone had their reasons. I imagine, even Hiei. I do not believe that he truly wanted Kurama to leave."

"And why would you think that?" Yusuke said.

"No reason." Koenma said, holding up his hands and blushing.

Yusuke pointed at him and he would have started in on the lord of the dead there again if Botan hadn't reached over him and said, "Thanks, Koenma. Please do call back when you have anything, OK?"

"Of course, Botan." Koenma said and the screen went blank.

"Why'd you do that?" Yusuke growled, turning to the blue-haired girl.

"He told you everything he knew. There was no point in yelling at him all over again, Yusuke."

"So what?"

"Yusuke...I know you're worried..." Yusuke frowned. "Come on. Let's go see if maybe Hiei will wake up and find him."

"Alright." Yusuke said after a moment, "Let's try, but that bastard hasn't woken up since he drove Kurama away."

"Yusuke..."

Yusuke sighed. "Let's just go already. I don't like waiting, remember? And this whole situation has already really pissed me off. When we finally find Kurama, whichever Kurama, I'll have to tell him just that."

_...to be continued...._


	49. Chapter 49 The Flashback

15 years ago... hadn't the moon been full that day, too?

Dying, hadn't Youko stared up into that moon?

"I cannot die this way." that's what he said.

"I cannot..."

The trees of Demon World had shivered and the flowers that slept in the night had sprung open. _No_! they cried in agreement.

_Live_.

That's what the grass whispered.

_Live_.

That's what the ivy hugging the trunks of ancient trees urged.

_Live_.

That was the only thought in Youko Kurama's mind.

Foolish to have been caught, even by such a hunter. Foolish that the hunter had left before ensuring that his target was indeed dead.

_Live_.

The breeze of Demon World was warm as it was always warm against Youko's face. It almost made him change his mind. It carried with it the sights and smells of Demon World. It carried with it the sounds of his adventures, the ones that even now made him grin.

It would only be 10 years.

But 10 _human _years.

His eyes slipped close. He was so tired; so very...tired...

He started.

His breathing was fast now; shallow.

His eyes were suddenly wide.

They were fastened on the moon.

When he had opened his eyes, they had fastened on the moon.

And although he had never thought it, never in all his life, he thought then about that moon. "Like a woman's face or...the face of a lover..." he whispered without realizing he was speaking. "Surrounded by light...such warm light...."

His vision blurred.

The moon became a watery reflection in the ocean of the sky.

"_Live_..."

He opened his eyes again. When had they shut? He couldn't remember. The moon remained in the sky, brighter than before. Demon world hushed around him as he chuckled softly to himself, his voice gurgled with his own blood.

"Live?" he said to the moon. "A youko in the human world? Perhaps I have truly lost all sense of pride." He paused, but no one confirmed or denied his statement; certainly not the moon his eyes gazed upon so gently. "But..." he said, his voice weaker than before, "But I would like to gaze upon such a moon again. Surely....even in the human world....there is such....warmth...."

His voice faded.

And so did Youko.

He had made his choice.

And so his body evaporated to become nothing but the pale light of a dying soul. Slowly, so slowly one would believe it would not make it to the human world, could not make it, it rose into the air, closer and closer to a moon it so longed to reach for. Reach for... and somehow, touch.

_...to be continued..._

**_Author's Note_**: HI!!!! Hope everyone had a GREAT Christmas and/or Holiday :) Mine was pretty cool. It seemed like all me and my sisters did was clean up the dishes or something every 5 minutes, but it was actually really nice.

**_Author's 2nd Note_**: Well. Thank you again for all of your reviews (as always :) If you thought you were confused before, I think after this update, you might want to throw in the towel (BUT DON'T! PLEASE! JUST PUT THE TOWEL DOWN....DON'T THROW IT....yah :) Is it confusing? It's sorta the whole Kurama broken between his old life and his new one and Yusuke being totally lost (and therefore totally pissed), Tohru trying to find what is real in all of this and Hiei being stubbornly stupid. Does that help?

**_Author's 3rd Note_**: There's more to come, but (actually) it's winding down. There WILL be a sequel to this (if you're still interested and you haven't thrown down that darn towel that I already asked you so nicely to gently set down :). It'll be more light in tone than this one. Maybe I'll put a preview in one of the final updates (maybe, but I'll have to start writing the sequel first-I don't even have the next part of this down yet :)

**_Author's 4th and FINAL Note (yi-pee!): _**Well, _Happy New Years _(in case I don't update by then)! Hope you all had a great, or at least interesting, or at least you made it through 2004 and hope you have nothing short of a _wonderful _2005 :)


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